224 



Louis Agassiz. 



the subject. In every-day life, who hesitates to 

 measure out commendation to the blacksmith, the 

 printer, the farmer, the jeweller, the artist, the mer- 

 chant, for excellence in their specialties ? The steam- 

 ship, the mansion, the bridge, are but the carefully 

 combined results of men's labours in many special 

 trades ; and the strength and beauty of every 

 structure and work are great and pleasing just in 

 proportion as the special workmen are skilled. The 

 moulding of all their results into one harmonious 

 body is the work of another specialist, who has the 

 comprehension to properly adjust and aggregate 

 them. 



The case is not at all dissimilar with the specialists 

 of science. Each is gathering and logically arran- 

 ging all the details of his examinations and study ; 

 whilst others are endeavouring to blend and har- 

 monise, so far as practicable with yet incomplete 

 observations, the results in the different branches of 

 science. So delicate have become the means and 

 methods of examination, so extreme the range of 

 subjects, so intimate their correlation, that we are 

 perforce compelled to confine our special investiga- 

 tions to single and very narrow lines of research. 

 The geologist, botanist, chemist, physiologist 

 mathematician, subdivide their labours; cosmical 

 physics attract one astronomer, observations of the 

 planets another, spectrum analysis another. As the 

 results in particular branches are announced, special 

 discussions are entered upon to evolve the law which 

 entwines and embraces them all. These discussions 

 must conform to and be governed by mathematical 



