228 LAVOISIER. 



which each of our teachers was successively made famous, 

 is of an importance far beyond its being subservient to 

 the gratification even of an enlightened and learned 

 curiosity. It is eminently calculated to further the 

 progress which it records ; it conveys peculiarly clear and 

 discriminating ideas upon the doctrines taught, and the 

 proofs they rest on; it suggests new inquiries, and en- 

 courages the prosecuting of new researches. It is, more- 

 over, both a debt of gratitude to our benefactors which 

 we should be anxious to pay by testifying our gratitude, 

 and commemorating their fame; and the discharge of 

 this duty has a direct tendency to excite emulation, 

 prompting to further labours that may enlarge the bounds 

 of science. Besides, the history of scientific achievements 

 is the history of the human mind in its noblest exertions, 

 of the human race in its most exalted pursuits. But it 

 is equally clear that the whole value of this, as of every 

 other branch of history, depends upon the diligence with 

 which the facts are examined, the care and even the skill 

 with which their evidence is sifted, the impartiality with 

 which judgment is pronounced, and the accuracy with 

 which the record is finally made up. The mere pane- 

 gyric of eminent men, how elegantly soever it may be 

 composed, must remain wholly worthless, at the best, 

 and is capable of being mischievous, if it aims at praise 

 without due discrimination, still more if it awards to one 

 man the eulogy which belongs to another. Nothing can 

 be more indispensable to the execution of the important 

 task undertaken by the historian of science, than that he 

 should most carefully examine the share which each of 

 its cultivators had in the successive changes it has under- 

 gone. The greatest of these have ever felt how valuable 



