28 IMPORTANCE OF THE SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 



tained the law of descent. This was an important 

 achievement, because, having become familiar with 

 the precise rate of descent at all depths, they were 

 enabled to tell very nearly when the ball ceased to 

 carry out the line, and when it began to go out in 

 obedience to the influence of deep-sea currents. The 

 greatest depth reached by Brooke's sounding-line 

 is said to have been a little under five miles in 

 the North Atlantic. 



The value of investigations of this kind does not 

 appear at first sight, to unscientific men. But those 

 who have paid even a little attention to the methods 

 and processes by which grand discoveries have been 

 made, and useful inventions have been perfected, 

 can scarcely have failed to come to the conclusion 

 that the search after TRUTH, pure and simple, of any 

 kind, and of every kind, either with or without refer- 

 ence to a particular end, is one of the most useful 

 as well as elevating pursuits in which man can 

 engage. 



All truth is worth knowing and labouring after. 

 No one can tell to what useful results the discovery 

 of even the smallest portion of truth may lead. 

 Some of the most serviceable and remarkable inven- 

 tions of modern times have been the result of dis- 

 coveries of truths which at first seemed to have no 

 bearing whatever on those inventions. When 

 James Watt sat with busy reflective mind staring 

 at a boiling kettle, and discovered the expansive 

 power of steam, no one could have for a moment 



