VICIOUS EMPIRICISM. 21 



or on some lonely mountain summit, surrounded by semi- 

 transparent vaporous clouds ; or, when placed before one of 

 those powerful telescopes which resolve the remoter nebula 

 into stars, the imagination soars into the boundless regions 

 of universal space. 



The mere accumulation of unconnected observations of 

 details, without generalisation of ideas, may no doubt have 

 conduced to the deeply-rooted prejudice, that the study of 

 the exact sciences must necessarily tend to chill the feelings, 

 and to diminish the nobler enjoyment attendant on the 

 contemplation of nature. Those who in the present day 

 cherish such an error in the midst of rapid progress and 

 new vistas of knowledge, fail in appreciating the value of 

 every enlargement of the sphere of intellect, and of the 

 tendency to rise from separate facts to results of a higher 

 and more general character. To this fear of sacrificing, 

 under the influence of scientific reasoning, something of the 

 free enjoyment of nature, is often added another fear, namely, 

 that the extent of the field of natural knowledge forbids to 

 jthe greater part of mankind access to its enjoyments. It is 

 true that in the midst of the universal fluctuation of forces, 

 and of the seemingly inextricable network of organic life, 

 alternately developed and destroyed, every step in the more 

 intimate knowledge of nature leads to the entrance of new 

 labyrinths ; but to those engaged in the pursuit the very 

 multiplicity of paths presenting themselves, the exciting 

 effort of divining the true one, the presentiment of fresh 

 mysteries to be unveiled, are all full of enjoyment. The 

 discovery of each separate law indicates, even if it does not 

 reveal, to the intelligent observer the existence of some 

 other higher and more general law. Nature, according 



