POPULAR SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 39 



precious fruits, those which furnish necessary subsistence 

 and comfort, and are the foundation of material wealth,- 

 and those fruits of creative fancy which, far more enduring 

 than that wealth, transmit the 9[lorr of the nation to the 

 remotest posterity. The Spartans, in spite of the Doric 

 severity of their mode of thought, "prayed the Gods to 

 grant them the beautiful with the good ( 18 )." 



As in that higher sphere of thought and feeling to which 

 I have just alluded, in philosophy, poetry, and the fine arts, 

 the primary aim of every study ought to be an inward one, 

 that of enlarging and fertilising the intellect; so the direct 

 aim of science should ever be the discovery of laws, and of 

 the principles of unity, order, and connection, which every 

 where reveal themselves in the universal life of nature. But 

 by that happy connection, whereby the useful is ever linked 

 with the true, the exalted, and the beautiful, science thus 

 followed for her own sake will pour forth abundant, over- 

 flowing streams, to enrich and fertilise that industrial pros- 

 perity, which is a conquest of the intelligence of man over 

 matter. 



The influence of mathematical and physical knowledge on 

 national prosperity, and on the present condition of Europe, 

 requires here only a passing allusion : the well-nigh boundless 

 course which we have to travel over, warns me that it would 

 ill become me to digress more widely from the leading object 

 of our undertaking, the contemplation of nature as a whole. 

 Accustomed to distant excursions, I have perhaps fallen into 

 the error of describing the path before us as more smooth 

 and pleasant than it will be really found, as those are wont to 

 do who love to guide others to the summit of lofty moun- 

 tains : they praise the view, even when great part of the dis- 



