492 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



knowledge. As the sliding body upon the bnichystochrone 

 reaches its end sooner than by the straighter road of the 

 inclined plane, so, through the swing of the ideal, we 

 often arrive at the naked truth more rapidly than by the 

 processes of the understanding." Whewell speaks of 

 enthusiasm of temper as a hindrance to science; but he 

 means the enthusiasm of weak heads. There is a strong 

 and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an ally; 

 and it is to the lowering of this fire, rather than to the 

 diminution of intellectual insight, that the lessening pro- 

 ductiveness of men of science, in their mature years, is to 

 be ascribed. Mr. Buckle sought to detach intellectual 

 achievement from moral force. He gravely erred, for 

 without moral force to whip it into action, the achievement 

 of the intellect would be poor indeed. 



It has been said by its opponents that science divorces 

 itself from literature; but the statement, like so many 

 others, arises from lack of knowledge. A glance at the 

 less technical writings of its leaders of its Helmholtz, its 

 Huxley, and its Du Bois-Reymond would show what 

 breadth of literary culture they command. Where among 

 modern writers can you find their superiors in clearness 

 and vigor of literary style? Science desires not isolation, 

 but freely combines with every effort toward the bettering 

 of man's estate. Single-handed, and supported, not by 

 outward sympathy, but by inward force, it has built at 

 least one great wing of the many-mansioned home which 

 man in his totality demands. And if rough walls and pro- 

 truding rafter-ends indicate that on one side the edifice is 

 still incomplete, it is only by wise combination of the 

 parts required, with those already irrevocably built, that 

 we can hope for completeness. There is no necessary 

 incongruity between what has been accomplished and what 

 remains to be done. The moral glow of Socrates, which 

 we all feel by ignition, has in it nothing incompatible 

 with the physics of Anaxagoras which he so much scorned, 

 but which he would hardly scorn to-day. And here I am 

 reminded of one among us, hoary, but still strong, whose 

 prophet-voice some thirty years ago, far more than any 

 other of this age, unlocked whatever of life and nobleness 

 lay latent in its most gifted minds one fit to stand beside 

 Socrates or the Maccabean Eleazar, and to dare and suffer 

 all that they suffered and dared fit, as he once said of 



