CHAPTER XXVI. 



CHAEACTEll OF THE EXPERIMENTALIST. 



In the present age there seems to be a tendency to be- 

 lieve that the importance of individual genius is less than 

 it was — 



" The individual withers, and the world is more and more." 



Society, it is supposed, has now assumed so highly deve- 

 loped a form, that what was accomplished in past times by 

 the solitary exertions of a great intellect, may now be 

 worked out by the united labours of an army of investi- 

 gators. Just as the well- organised power of a modern army 

 supersedes the single-handed bravery of the mediaeval 

 knights, so we are to believe that the combination of in- 

 tellectual labour has superseded the genius of an Archi- 

 medes, a Newton, or a Laplace. So-called original research 

 is now regarded as a profession, adopted by hundreds of 

 men, and communicated by a system of training. All that 

 we need to secure additions to our knowledge of nature is 

 the erection of great laboratories, museums, and observa- 

 tories, and the offering of pecuniary rewards to those who 

 can invent new chemical compounds, detect new species, or 

 discover new comets. Doubtless this is not the real mean- 

 ing of the eminent men who are now urging upon Govern- 

 ment the endowment of physical research. They can only 

 mean that the greater the pecuniary and material assistance 

 given to men of science, the greater the result wliich the 

 available genius of the country may be expected to 

 produce. Money and opportunities of study can uo more 

 produce genius than sunshine and moisture can generate 



