ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 125 



immediately captivating, at others engrossing and leading 

 to realms of speculation. To one sitting in a garden a 

 passing leaf may suggest a train of thought with endless 

 vistas. A blast of local mechanical agency may have 

 driven it ; but it may be the sign of a general movement 

 in the air surrounding us. Whence that movement ? 

 This ascertained, whence the causa causans ? And this 

 determined, whence the last determined cause? And so 

 on to the more distant in space, the more remote in 

 time. Checked we are at last, but the searchings and 

 speculations have not been in vain, if we become 

 impressed with the grandeur of the truth that "for every 

 cause which we can detect another cause lies behind"; 

 or have risen to some conception of the " number of 

 laws operating to produce a single result in Nature." 



The high intellect ruling in the great men prominent 

 in the rolls of Fame is not of course the attribute of 

 ordinary mortals, but genius has been described as " the 

 infinite capacity of taking pains," and by taking pains 

 the student of Natui-al Science may accomplish much 

 without that " infinite capacity " which great men are 

 able to command. It is to be admitted, however, that 

 for successful labour something like enthusiasm must be 

 infused, and doubtless various means may be suggested 

 by which this can be created. Isaac Taylor has indeed 

 treated of enthusiasm as itself a branch of Natural 

 History. It may be, and has been, assisted by the 

 literary faculty. As a rule scientific books are not, and 

 we may suppose cannot be, written in an attractive style; 

 and Professor Tyndall complains that certain opponents 

 insist that science divorces itself from literature. There 

 have been, however, bright instances to the contrary, 

 and the members will be familiar with those I am 

 about to quote — men with whom the literary faculty 

 was duly cultivated, to the renown of the individual, 

 and to the advantage of all readers. Buffon, the 

 celebrated French naturalist, developed in his " Histoire 



