Failure 

 Family 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



244 



hypothetical assumptions as to the atomic 

 structure of bodies. We now know that 

 many of these hypotheses, which found fa- 

 vor in their day, far overshot the mark. 

 HELMHOLTZ Popular Lectures, lect. 1, p. 17. 

 (L. G. & Co., 1898.) 



1192. FAILURE THROUGH LACK OF 

 WILL Dreamy Irresolution of Coleridge. 

 There was probably no man of his time, or 

 perhaps of any time, who surpassed Cole- 

 ridge in the combination of the reasoning 

 powers of the philosopher with the imagina- 

 tion of the poet and the inspiration of the 

 seer; and there was perhaps not one of the 

 last generation who has left so strong an 

 impress of himself in the subsequent course 

 of thought of reflective minds engaged in 

 the highest subjects of human contempla- 

 tion. And yet there was probably never a 

 man endowed with such remarkable gifts 

 who accomplished so little that was worthy 

 of them the great defect of his character 

 being the want of will to turn his gifts to 

 account; so that, with numerous gigantic 

 projects constantly floating in his mind, he 

 never brought himself even seriously to at- 

 tempt to execute any one of them. It used 

 to be said of him that whenever either nat- 

 ural obligation or voluntary undertaking 

 made it his duty to do anything, the fact 

 seemed a sufficient reason for his not doing 

 it. Thus, at the very outset of his career, 

 when he had found a bookseller (Mr. Cottle) 

 generous enough to promise him thirty 

 guineas for poems which he recited to him, 

 and might have received the whole sum im- 

 mediately on delivering the manuscript, he 

 went on, week after week, begging and bor- 

 rowing for his daily needs in the most hu- 

 miliating manner, until he had drawn from 

 his patron the whole of the promised pur- 

 chase-money, without supplying him with 

 a line of that poetry which he had only to 

 write down to free himself from obligation. 

 The habit of recourse to nervine stimu- 

 lants (alcohol and opium) which he early 

 |ormed, and from which he never seemed 

 able to free himself, doubtless still further 

 weakened his power of volitional self-con- 

 trol; so that it became necessary for his 

 welfare that he should yield himself to the 

 control of others. CARPENTER Mental Phys- 

 iology, bk. i, ch. 6, p. 266. (A., 1900.) 



1 1 93. FAILURES PAVE THE WAY TO 

 SUCCESS I mention these failures [of 

 first attempts to gage depth of glaciers] 

 because they give some idea of the dis- 

 couragements and difficulties which meet 

 the investigator in any new field of re- 

 search. The student must remember, for 

 his consolation under such disappointments, 

 that his failures are almost as important 

 to the cause of science and to those who fol- 

 low him in the same road, as his successes. 

 It is much to know what we cannot do in 

 any given direction the first step, indeed, 

 toward the accomplishment of what we can 

 do. AGASSIZ Geological Sketches, ser. i, 

 ch. 8, p. 295. (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



1194. FAINTNESS OF IMPRESSION 

 SUGGESTS DISTANCE IN TIME There is 

 an opposite effect in the case of recent oc- 

 currences that, for some reason or another, 

 have left but a faint impression on the 

 memory, tho this fact is not, perhaps, 

 so familiar as the other. I met a friend, 

 we will suppose, a few days since at my 

 club, and we exchanged a few words. My 

 mind was somewhat preoccupied at the time, 

 and the occurrence did not stamp itself on 

 my recollection. To-day I meet him again, 

 and he reminds me of a promise I made 

 him at the time. His reminder suffices to 

 restore a dim image of the incident, but 

 the fact of its dimness leads to the illusion 

 that it really happened much longer ago, 

 and it is only on my friend's strong as- 

 surances, and on reasoning from other data 

 that it must have occurred the day he men- 

 tions, that I am able to dismiss the illu- 

 sion. SULLY Illusions, ch. 10, p. 258. (A., 

 1897.) 



1195. FAITH OF SCIENCE Assump- 

 tions of Psychology. Every natural science 

 assumes certain data uncritically, and de- 

 clines to challenge the elements between 

 which its own " laws " obtain, and from 

 which its own deductions are carried on. 

 Psychology, the science of finite individual 

 minds, assumes as its data ( 1 ) thoughts 

 and feelings, and (2) a physical world in 

 time and space with which they coexist and 

 which (3) they know. JAMES Psychology, 

 vol. i, pref., p. 5. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



1 196. FAITH, SCIENCE FOUNDED ON 



The First Law of Motion Not One In- 

 stance of Its Operation Ever Known. The 

 law is, that all motion is in itself (that is to 

 say, except as affected by extraneous forces ) 

 uniform in velocity and rectilinear in direc- 

 tion. Thus according to this law a body 

 moving, and not subject to any extraneous 

 force, would go on moving forever at the 

 same rate of velocity and in an exactly 

 straight line. 



Now, there is no such motion as this ex- 

 isting on the earth or in the heavens. It 

 is an abstract idea of motion which no man 

 has ever, or can ever, see exemplified. Yet 

 a clear apprehension of this abstract idea 

 was necessary to a right understanding and 

 to the true explanation of all the motions 

 which are actually seen. It was long before 

 this idea was arrived at. There was a real 

 difficulty in conceiving it, because not only 

 is there no such motion in Nature, but there 

 is no possibility by artificial means of pro- 

 ducing it. It is impossible to release any 

 moving body from the impulses of extrane- 

 ous force. The first law of motion is there- 

 fore a purely abstract idea. It represents 

 a rule which never operates as we conceive 

 it in itself, but is always complicated with 

 other rules which produce a corresponding 

 complication in result. Like many other 

 laws of the same class, it was discovered, 



