Augustine's definition. 13 



Christianity had revealed the folly. And 

 among the temptations which he still desires 

 to overcome is the appetite of knowledge 

 — a " vain and curious desire hiding under 

 the name of science" (lib. x. c. 35). This 

 is the desire which pretends, he says, to 

 reach the inmost secrets of nature — secrets 

 which when discovered could have no value, 

 and of which men desire and expect no- 

 thing except to know. Now, here we have 

 an exact definition of the true scientific spirit 

 — a spirit which has, indeed, in its results, 

 richly "endowed the human family with new 

 mercies," but which never has had this dower 

 in view as its only, or even as its chief, 

 inducement. It is not perhaps exactly relevant 

 to observe that the glorious facts of Astro- 



