286 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



menced the long line of amateur star-gazers of this 

 country ; Luke Howard's study of clouds drew from the 

 kindred spirit which lived in the great Goethe a loving 

 memorial; 1 and John Dalton was induced by the mists 

 and fogs of his native lake country to join in the foun- 

 dation of the modern science of meteorology. 

 48. We now discover the reason why the strong individual - 



Union of in- 

 dividualism ism of the English character, which prompted new de- 



smd natural- 



E toid. pastures and inspired new ideas in science, as it produced 

 adventures and novel enterprise in life and arts, has not 

 more frequently led to discouraging failures in the latter, 

 or to eccentricity and dreaminess in the former; why it 

 has, on the whole, alike in practical work and in scientific 

 study, been rewarded by signal success. The rare genius, 

 gifted with the power of original thought, who found no 

 academy ready to call him, no schools where he could be 

 trained, no university eager to nurse and develop his 



1 Luke Howard (1772-1864), a Bestimmt das Uubestimmte, schrankt es 



member of the Society of Friends, ; ^"1 es treffend !-Sey die Ehre Dein ! 



was one of the many lovers of nature ; \vi e Streife. steigt, sich ballt, zerflattert, 



and amateur naturalists of this fallt, 



country in whom new sciences like | Krinnre dankbar Deiner sich die Welt." 



that of meteorology are nursed ', 



during their unpretentious infancy. ! Goethe subsequently tried to get 



He himself gave a simple narrative : some information about Howard s 



of his life and doings to the great way f ! lfe ' S J t ! ia * I l !> ht *** 



Goethe, who, attracted by his at- how such a mmd 18 formed - wha t 



tempted classification of clouds : opportunities, what circumstances, 



(about 1802, published in his <Cli- have led him unto ways of looking 



mate of London'), had addressed * \ ature naturally, have taught 



some lines to him, accompanying him how to devote himself to her, so 



them by a statement in verse of M to find her laws and to prescribe 



Howard's description of the stratus, these a g aia to her m a na t ural hu , ma n 



cumulus, cirrus, and nimbus : I manner.' In his autobiographical 



narrative (reprinted in the last vol- 



"Er aber, Howard, giebt mit reinem UDQ e of Goethe's Works) Howard 



Sinn refers to the meteoric phenomena 



Uns neuer Lehre herrlichsten Gewinn : of jj^ mentioned also in Cow- 



u n ni erre en P er ' 8 Letters < 13th June 1788 )' and 



Er fasst es an, er halt zuerst es fest ; White's ' History of Selborne. ' 



