238 THE GEOGRAPHY 



quantity become considerable, they are collected, in sys- 

 tematic arrangement, into a so-called science, but the 

 seeker wanders hither and thither without hold or aim ; 

 material is heaped up, and yet science does not advance 

 one step. Then comes a man eminently gifted with 

 genius, or frequently even merely one happily favoured by 

 accident, and gives definite expression to the problem, for 

 the solution of which men had been tormenting themselves 

 without knowing it; and now all the mental powers of 

 the inquirers are suddenly directed to this one point. 

 Down fall the barriers in rapid succession, and Science 

 advances with giant strides, till she comes again to a point 

 where all progress is obstructed, where everywhere is met a 

 flat and impenetrable wall, and now the same process of 

 development must be repeated anew, in a higher stage, till 

 again a new leader strike on the right place, where the wall 

 rings hollow, and thus betrays the possibility of a further 

 advance. In the domain of moral religion we have also 

 problems, but we seek the Sciences, which ensure their solu- 

 tion ; on the other hand, we have numerous Sciences, which 

 ever move round in a circle, till now this man, now that, 

 through Providence, declares a new object, and so they 

 become capable of an onward movement. 



A striking voucher for these views is afforded us, for 

 example, in the Geography of Plants. In the earliest days 

 of Botany, in every description of a plant was noted the 

 place where it was found, but no one anticipated that these 

 notices enclosed the germ of a new Science. The clever 

 Botanist, Tournefort, made a journey to the Levant, and in 

 the ascent of Ararat it struck him, that in its gradual 

 elevation above the level of the sea, the vegetation assumed 

 essentially different characters, and that these changes 

 corresponded very closely with what was observed in the 



