490 THE ADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 



our time," says Lord Brougham,* "in the study of the 

 sciences, in learning what others have discovered, and in 

 extending the bounds of human knowledge has, in all ages, 

 been reckoned the most dignified and happy of human occu- 

 pations No man until he has studied philosophy, 



can have a just idea of the great things for which Providence 

 has fitted his understanding ; the extraordinary dispropor- 

 tion which there is between his natural strength, and the 

 powers of his mind, and the force he derives from them." 

 Finally, he concludes that science would not only " make our 

 lives more agreeable, but better : and that a rational being in 

 bound by every motive of interest and duty, to direct his 

 mind towards pursuits which are found to be the sure path 

 of virtue as well as of happiness." 



In reality we are but on the threshold of civilisation. Far 

 from showing any indications of having come to an end, the 

 tendency to improvement seems latterly to have proceeded 

 with augmented impetus and accelerated rapidity. Why, 

 then, should we suppose that it must now cease ? Man has 

 surely not reached the limits of his intellectual development, 

 and it is certain that he has not exhausted the infinite capa- 

 bilities of nature. There are many things which are not as 

 yet dreamt of in our philosophy ; many discoveries which 

 will immortalise those who make them, and confer upon the 

 human race advantages which as yet, perhaps, we are not in 

 a condition to appreciate. We may still say with our great 

 countryman, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have been but like 

 children, playing on the seashore, and picking up here and 

 there a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, 

 while the great ocean of truth lies all undiscovered before us. 



Thus, then, the most sanguine hopes for the future are 

 justified by the whole experience of the past. It is surely 

 unreasonable to suppose that a process which has been going 

 * Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 39. 



