TYNDALL'S ADDRESSES. 



I. 



On the Methods and Tendencies of Phys- 

 ical Investigation. 



The celebrated Fichte, in his lectures on the " Voca- 

 tion of the Scholar," insisted on a culture for the scholar 

 which should not be one-sided, but all-sided. His intel- 

 lectual nature was to expand spherically, and not in a 

 single direction. In one direction, however, Fichte re- 

 quired that the scholar should apply himself directly to 

 nature, become a creator of knowledge, and thus repay, 

 by original labors of his own, the immense debt he owed 

 to the labors of others. It was these which enabled him 

 to supplement the knowledge derived from his own re- 

 searches, so as to render his culture rounded, and not 

 one-sided. 



Fichte's idea is to some extent illustrated by the con^ 

 stitution and the'fabors of the British Association. We 

 have here a body of men engaged in the pursuit of nat- 

 ural knowledge, but variously engaged. While sympa- 

 thizing with each of its departments, and supplement- 

 ing his culture by knowledge drawn from all of them, 



