NATURAL SCIENCE TO GENERAL SCIENCE. 11 



cessful than others in some one department of intellectual 

 labour, is apt to forget that there are many other things 

 which they can do better than he can : a mistake — I 

 would have every student remember — which is the worst 

 enemy of all intellectual activity. 



How many men of ability have forgotten to practise 

 that criticism of themselves which is so essential to the 

 student, and so hard to exercise, or have been completely 

 crippled in their progress, because they have thought 

 dry, laborious drudgery beneath them, and have devoted 

 all their energies to the quest of brilliant theories and 

 wonder-working discoveries ! How many such men have 

 become bitter misanthropes, and put an end to a melan- 

 choly existence, because they have failed to obtain among 

 their fellows that recognition which must be won by 

 labour and results, but which is ever withheld from 

 mere self-conscious genius ! And the more isolated a 

 man is, the more liable is he to this danger ; while, 

 on the other hand, nothing is more inspiriting than to 

 feel yourself forced to strain every nerve to win the 

 admiration of men whom you, in your turn, must 

 admire. 



In comparing the intellectual processes involved in the 

 pursuit of the several branches of science, we are struck by 

 certain generic differences, dividing one group of sciences 

 from another. At the same time it must not be forgotten 

 that every man of conspicuous ability has his own special 

 mental constitution, which fits him for one line of 

 thought rather than another. Compare the work of 

 two contemporary investigators even in closely-allied 

 branches of science, and you will generally be able to 

 convince yourself that the more distinguished the men 

 are, the more clearly does their individuality come out, 

 and the less qualified woujd either of them be to carry 

 on the other's researphes, To-day I can, of course, do 

 "2 



