128 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



to pierce. In Goethe, so glorious otherwise, I chiefly 

 noticed the self-inflicted hurts of genius, as it broke itself 

 in vain against the philosophy of Newton. For a time, 

 Mr. Bain became my principal companion. I found him 

 learned and practical, shining generally with a dry light, 

 but exhibiting at times a flush of emotional strength, which 

 proved that even logicians share the common fire of hu- 

 manity. He interested me most when he became the 

 mirror of my own condition. Neither intellectually nor 

 socially is it good for man to be alone, and the griefs of 

 thought are more patiently borne when we find that they 

 have been experienced by another. From certain passages 

 in his book I could infer that Mr. Bain was no stranger to 

 such sorrows. Take this passage as an illustration. Speak- 

 ing of the ebb of intellectual force, which we all from time 

 to time experience, Mr. Bain says, " The uncertainty where 

 to look fcr the next opening of discovery brings the pain of 

 conflict and the debility of indecision." These words have 

 in them the true ring of personal experience. The action 

 of the investigator is periodic. He grapples with a subject 

 of inquiry, "wrestles with it, overcomes it, exhausts, it may 

 be, both himself and it for the time being. He breathes a 

 space, and then renews the struggle in another field. Now 

 this period of halting between two investigations is not 

 always one of pure repose. It is often a period of doubt 

 and discomfort, of gloom and ennui. " The uncertainty 

 where to look for the next opening of discovery brings the 

 pain of conflict and the debility of indecision." Such was 

 my precise condition in the Alps this year ; in a score of 

 words Mr. Bain has here sketched my mental diagnosis ; 

 and it was under these evil circumstances that I had to 

 equip myself for the hour and the ordeal that arc now 

 come. 



Gladly, however, as I should have seen this duty in 

 other hands, I could by no means shrink from it. Disloy- 



