PHILOSOPHY AS AN ORGANON 



written in a healthier frame of mind. " The 

 most important practical results continually flow 

 from theories formed purely with scientific in- 

 tent, and which have sometimes been pursued 

 for ages without any practical result. A remark- 

 able example is furnished by the beautiful re- 

 searches of the Greek geometers upon conic 

 sections, which, after a long series of genera- 

 tions, have renovated the science of astronomy, 

 and thus brought the art of navigation to a 

 pitch of perfection which it could never have 

 reached but for the purely theoretic inquiries 

 of Archimedes and Apollonios. As Condorcet 

 well observes, the sailor, whom an exact calcu- 

 lation of longitude preserves from shipwreck, 

 owes his life to a theory conceived two thou- 

 sand years ago by men of genius who were 

 thinking of nothing but lines and angles." This 

 is the true view ; and we need not fear that the 

 scientific world will ever adopt any other. That 

 inborn curiosity which, according to the Hebrew 

 legend, has already made us like gods, know- 

 ing good and evil, will continue to inspire us 

 until the last secret of Nature is laid bare ; and 

 doubtless, in the untiring search, we shall un- 

 cover many priceless jewels, in places where we 

 least expected to find them. 



The foregoing examples will suffice to illus- 

 trate the vagueness with which Comte conceived 

 the limits of scientific and of philosophic in- 

 99 



