THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 297 



the school and the study are even more important than 

 in the exploration of nature, and thus it is not surpris- 

 ing that in these especially the bulk of the work, 

 though frequently begun by Englishmen, has been car- 

 ried on by the great schools and academies of the Con- 

 tinent. In the regions of exact science, with which we 

 are at present more immediately concerned, there will 

 always be a much greater inducement for original minds 

 to forsake the beaten track, the recognised method or 

 system. 



The genius gifted with a larger field of vision and a 

 keener glance will always feel the longing to return to 

 Nature herself, and the practical man will be allured by 

 the prospects of application of science in the arts and 

 industries. Both will find their reward ; nor is it likely 

 that the works of Faraday and Darwin should be the last 

 illustrious examples of great and far-reaching ideas sprung 

 from the living intercourse of original genius and nature 

 without the support of any school ; or that the practical 

 success of the Atlantic cable will be the last fruit of 

 the rare combination of highest mathematical genius with 

 industrial and commercial enterprise. The historian of 

 thought is forced to admit that such rare combinations 

 are most likely to spring up amongst a people who have 

 always opposed the rule of systems and methods, of schools 

 and academies ; who have nursed and cherished an inti- 

 mate communion with nature ; and for whom practical 

 interests and adventures have always preserved an irre- 

 sistible attraction. 



Living in an age when the foundation in England and 

 in Germany of institutions similar to the Academie Fran- 



