NATUEAL SCIENCE TO GENEEAL SCIENCE. 29 



to St. Petersburg witli the speed of lightning ? In the 

 hands of Gralvani, and at first even in Volta's, electrical 

 currents were phenomena capable of exerting only the 

 feeblest forces, and could not be detected except by the 

 most delicate apparatus. Had they been neglected, on 

 the ground that the investigation of them promised no 

 immediate practical result, we should now be ignorant of 

 the most important and most interesting of the links 

 between the various forces of nature. When young 

 Gralileo, then a student at Pisa, noticed one day during 

 divine service a chandelier swinging backwards and for- 

 wards, and convinced himself, by counting his pulse, that 

 the duration of the oscillations was independent of the 

 arc through which it moved, who could know that this 

 discovery would eventually put it in our power, by means 

 of the pendulum, to attain an accuracy in the measure- 

 ment of time till then deemed impossible, and would 

 enable the storm-tossed seaman in the most distant oceans 

 to determine in what degree of longitude he was sailing ? 

 Whoever, in the pursuit of science, seeks after imme- 

 diate practical utility, may generally rest assured that he 

 will seek in vain. All that science can achieve is a perfect 

 knowledge and a perfect understanding of the action of 

 natural and moral forces. Each individual student must 

 be content to find his reward in rejoicing over new dis- 

 coveries, as over new victories of mind over reluctant 

 matter, or in enjoying the aesthetic beauty of a well- 

 ordered field of knowledofe, where the connection and the 

 filiation of every detail is clear to the mind, and where all 

 denotes the presence of a ruling intellect ; he must rest 

 satisfied with the consciousness that he too has contributed 

 something to the increasing fund of knowledge on which 

 the dominion of man over all the forces hostile to intelli- 

 gence reposes. He will, indeed, not always be permitted 

 to expect from his fellow-men appreciation and reward 



