EDWARD BURGESS. 121 



with moral law. It is in this complete adoption that 

 perfection consists. Of coarse, in the present condition 

 of things, this perfection is an ideal rather than an actual 

 state; but although it be an ideal state, we may and do ap- 

 proach it as we understand more clearly and correctly 

 these physical and moral laws, and thus diminish the 

 possibilities of disagreement between ourselves and them. 

 Whatever gain therefore, is made in a more accurate 

 understanding of these laws, is a help towards right 

 living; and as every contribution to the stock of know- 

 ledge does aid to the more accurate understanding of 

 these laws, we may truthfully affirm that all such con- 

 tributions do teach us, in some measure, the better how 

 to live. 



This object of purpose, as I have said, may not be 

 present to the mind of the one who is seeking to ex- 

 tend his knowledge. He is stimulated by what seems, 

 the pure love of knowledge itself. This is a sufficient 

 incentive to exertion ; and this ulterior result may never 

 occur to him; but nevertheless, at the bottom of all, lies 

 this foundation impulse. The pursuit of knowledge is 

 arduous and fatiguing. It is hard to think and hard to 

 deviate from the paths of our predecessors, and unless 

 some great advantage were to be gained by this labor 

 and this deviation, they would, by the law of natural 

 selection, have disappeared from the earth. The mere 

 love of knowledge, without any results flowing from 

 it, would have been insufficient to have preserved any 

 ardor in its pursuit. 



Unless this fact be clearly recognized, it is not easy to 

 understand the value or the worth of many kinds of 

 scientific research. We often hear people ask, "of what 

 good is it to study such dry, uninteresting things ? Of 

 what value is it to the investigator himself or any one 

 else?" One may be studying mosses ; another hammer- 

 ing away at some old rocks; another impaling butterflies 



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