Dynamical Ideas in Chemistry. 405 



dom, no sanction any longer exists ; act and motive are identical. 

 This strange phenomenon of the destruction of a science has 

 been witnessed by the present generation ; it is as rare in human 

 history as the extinction of a star. 



With regard to other departments of practical philosophy, I 

 need merely state the names of politics, religion, and sociology, 

 and leave it to the candid reader to consider whether their nearer 

 history has been more characterized by freedom or definition. 

 To his judgment I also relinquish the questions whether liberty, 

 toleration, the scientific spirit, and the growth of all our noblest 

 interests, are not more likely to be fostered by cultivating the 

 great standard I have discussed than by the dogma of an absolute 

 limit. Where can we find " contentment, but in proceeding "*? 

 or peace, but in action ? or hope, but in the drift of nature ? 



Thus, then, having reflected upon the principles of our daily 

 actions and the more recondite sources of our scientific life, we 

 see rising from them all, like a spirit out of darkness, the pierfect 

 majesty of motion. This is the centre, this is the vast and ever- 

 receding circumference of fulfilled desire. All beauty, all life, 

 all thoughtful power, are contained in it and are it. Like a 

 river it has glided on, silent, devious, unperturbed. From a 

 Grecian source toward the untravelled sea the stately ships of 

 science take freight and spread their sails upon its bosom ; the 

 gilded craft of music, of poetry, and of rhetoric disport there ; 

 and the tiny barks of incipient civilization have but that single 

 channel. It has drained, refreshed, and fertilized every conti- 

 nent of thought and feeling. At a distance from its margin are 

 chiefly found the hideous desert and the dry rocks of old dog- 

 matic conflict ; but nearer to the shore come soft oases ; and its 

 banks are fertile vales, content, and sweet and tranquil. All 

 remote inspirations, all scattered fragments of knowledge, are 

 but dew or clouds exhaled at first from its surface, or wafted 

 from its waves. 



Ah, Shade of Herakleitos ! leave his urn, and weep no more ; 

 for the teachings of that mighty mind are not only understood, 

 but have been verified, and we can now coordinate them from 

 new forms. Henceforth it remains but to apply his great idea, 

 now seen to be the widest generalization from experience — to 

 turn round, and, journeying backward into detail, take that as 

 both map and compass on the road. Henceforth, for us who 

 have chosen the criterion, all that is good and desirable is mo- 

 tion, all that is evil and to be dreaded is a limit. Let no one 

 strive to reconcile them. 



* Hobbes. 



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