11 THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 57 



done great things because it animated them ; and 

 men of great natural gifts have failed, absolutely 

 or relatively, because they lacked this one thing 

 needful. 



To any one who knows the business of investi- 

 gation practically, Bacon's notion of establishing a 

 company of investigators to work for " fruits," as 

 if the pursuit of knowledge were a kind of mining 

 operation and only required well-directed picks 

 and shovels, seems very strange. 1 In science, as 

 in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of 

 human activity, there may be wisdom in a multi- 

 tude of counsellors, but it is only in one or two 

 of them. And, in scientific inquiry, at any rate, it 

 is to that one or two that we must look for light 

 and guidance. Newton said that he made his dis- 

 coveries by " intending " his mind on the subject ; 

 no doubt, truly. But to equal his success one must 

 have the mind which he " intended." Forty lesser 

 men might have intended their minds till they 

 cracked, without any like result. It would be idle 

 either to affirm or to deny that the last half-cent- 

 ury has produced men of science of the calibre 

 of Newton. It is sufficient that it can show a 

 few capacities of the first rank, competent not 

 only to deal profitably with the inheritance 



1 " Memorable exemple de 1'impuissance des recherches col- 

 lectives appliquees a la decouverte des verites nouvelles ! " says 

 one of the most distinguished of living French savants, of the 

 corporate chemical work of the old Academic des Sciences. 

 (See Berthelot, Science et Philosophic, p. 201.) 



