SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 



61 



there no being or thing in the universe 

 that knows more about these matters 

 than I do ; what is my answer ? Suppos- 

 ing our theologic schemes of creation, 

 condemnation, and redemption to be 

 dissipated ; and the warmth of denial 

 which they excite, and which, as a motive 

 force, can match the warmth of affirma- 

 tion, dissipated at the same time ; would 

 the undetected human mind return to 



the meridian of absolute neutrality as 

 regards these ultra-physical questions? 

 Is such a position one of stable equi- 

 librium ? The channels of thought being 

 already formed, such are the questions, 

 without replies, which could run athwart 

 consciousness during a ten minutes' halt 

 upon the weathered crest of the Matter- 

 horn. 



SCIENTIFIC USE OF THE IMAGINATION 1 



"Lastly, physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teach us the actual value and 

 right use of the Imagination of that wondrous facility which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads us 

 astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land of mists and shadows ; btit which, properly 

 controlled by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute of man ; the source of poetic genius, 

 the instrument of discovery in Science, without the aid of which Newton would never have invented 

 fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found another 

 Continent.'" Address to the Royal Society by its President, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Nov. 3Oth, 1859. 



I CARRIED with me to the Alps this year 

 the burden of this evening's work. Save 

 from memory I had no direct aid upon 

 the mountains; but to spur up the 

 emotions, on which so much depends, as 

 well as to nourish indirectly the intellect 

 and will, I took with me four works, 

 comprising two volumes of poetry, 

 Goethe's Farbenlehre, and the work on 

 Logic recently published by Mr. Alex- 

 ander Bain. In Goethe, so noble other- 

 wise, I chiefly noticed the self-inflicted 

 hurts of genius, as it broke itself in vain 

 against the philosophy of Newton. Mr. 

 Bain I found, for the most part, learned 

 and practical, shining generally with a 

 dry light, but exhibiting at times a flush 

 of emotional strength, which proved that 

 even logicians share the common fire of 

 humanity. He interested me most when 

 he became the mirror of my own condi- 

 tion. Neither intellectually nor socially 

 is it good for man to be alone, and the 

 sorrows of thought are more patiently 



borne when we find that they have been 

 experienced by another. From certain 

 passages in his book I could infer that 

 Mr. Bain was no stranger to such 

 sorrows. Speaking, for example, of the 

 ebb of intellectual force, which we all 

 from time to time experience, Mr. Bain 

 says: "The uncertainty where to look for 

 the next opening of discovery brings the 

 pain of conflict and debility of in- 

 decision." These words have in them 

 the true ring of personal experience. 

 The action of the investigator is periodic. 

 He grapples with a subject of inquiry, 

 wrestles with it, and exhausts, it may be, 

 both himself and it for the time being. 

 He breathes a space, and then renews 

 the struggle in another field. Now this 

 period of halting between two investi- 

 gations is not always one of pure repose 

 It is often a period of doubt and dis- 

 comfort of gloom and ennui. " The 

 uncertainty where to look for the next 

 opening of discovery brings the pain of 



Discourse delivered before the British Association at Liverpool, September i6th, 1870. 



