ascend to higher and more comprehensive generalizations, 

 hich enrich the intellect, enlarge the sphere* of ideas, 

 and nourish and vivify the imagination. Many depart- 

 jjients of ph3^sical science cannot be thoroughly compre- 

 hended without subjecting them to analytical processes, 

 without disintegrating them. But this does not satisfy 

 man's instinctive longing after harmony and connection 

 — symmetry and order. The accurate knowledge of 

 special phenomena thus secured, constitutes a precious 

 heritage to our day and generation. This is the ma- 

 terial which must be used in the work of synthesis, 

 and out of which, when combined and co-ordinated, is to 

 be constructed a beautiful and symmetrical Temple of 

 Science. As an edifice cannot produce a striking effect 

 until the scaffolding is removed, which had, of necessity, 

 been used in its erection, so the isolated investigations 

 which have led to general results, must be kept out of 

 view, in order that the imaginative faculties may derive 

 nourishment and strength from the contemplation of 

 Nature. We must distinguish between those great 

 results which form the beacon-lights of Science, and the 

 long series of means by which they have been attained. 

 If, in the laborious processes by which these results have 

 been secured to mankind, the wings of fancy seem to 

 have been over-borne by the multiplicity of details, it 

 has been only to plume them for still loftier flights in the 

 domains of imagination. 



The unprecedented enlargement of the circle of the 

 Physical Sciences which followed the epochs of Galileo 

 and Newton, rendered a division of labor necessary 

 for the development of knowledge. Thus originated 

 those specialities which have contributed so. much to 



