ADDRESS OF PROF. W. B. ROGERS. 89 



wliere there are grounds for doubt, in any province of thought, is 

 injurious to the cause of truth and incompatible with that genuine 

 philosophy which recognizes how small is the segment of our actual 

 knowledge ns compared to the infinite sphere of possible discovery. 

 In closing this imperfect notice of the labors and the character as 

 a philosopher which have given to Joseph Henry so liigh a place 

 among the men of science of our day, and have won for him the 

 crowning honor of this national memorial meeting, I am led to 

 allude to the illustration which he has furnished of the peculiar 

 genius and temperament of the American people. In his example 

 we see that combination of the j)ractical and the philosophical which 

 we may claim as characteristic of our nation, and which refutes the 

 charge, sometimes made, that, although fertile beyond other nations 

 in invention, we do not rise to the higher level of scientific thought. 

 Nor can I refrain, in this connection, from appropriating to our 

 country the words in whicJi Milton so nobly characterized the 

 capacities of the great nation of which, in his time, we were a part : 

 "A nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and pierc- 

 ing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, and not 

 beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can 

 soar to." 



