252 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



The English man of science would reply that it is unsafe 

 to trust exclusively to the guidance of a pure idea, that 

 the ideality of German research has frequently been 

 identical with unreality, and that in no country has so 

 much time and power been frittered away in following 

 phantoms, and in systematising empty notions, as in the 

 Land of the Idea ; but he would as readily admit that 

 his own country is greatly deficient in such organisations 

 for combined scientific labour as exist abroad, and that 

 England possesses no well- trained army of intellectual 

 workers. 

 26. These differences between English and Continental 



English pe- " 



cuiiarities scieucc wcrc most prouounced in the first half of the 



more pro- ^ 



during'^tariy prescut ccutury, when Germany developed her university 

 cciitiiry. ^^ system, when France clearly defined the exact scientific 

 methods, and when the encyclopaedic view peculiar to 

 the historical and philosophical pursuits of the earlier 

 years gradually became dominant in the exact sciences 

 also. Since then the intercourse of the different nations 

 has done much to destroy these national peculiarities. 

 The reform of the universities, in which Germany was 

 engaged in the early years of the century, did not touch 

 the English universities before the middle of the century. 

 In the meantime quite different demands had sprung up 

 all through the civilised world ; and as nothing repeats 

 itself in history, it will be impossible to reach in this 

 country the same broad organisation for purely intellec- 

 tual work as Germany can rightly boast of during the 

 period we are dealing with. Some persons doubt whether 

 it will be maintained in Germany. It appears still more 

 doubtful whether such an organisation could now be 



