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JOURNAL OF TflE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
most pleasing to us, that we are aware only of a prominent idea 
or sensation by virtue of its contrast with others. If our sight 
only afforded us the sensation of scarlet there would be no such 
thing as colour; the pleasure which variety of colour gives us 
would be lost. And if we had no idea of vice, we should be 
insensible to the feeling of admiration which virtue inspires. 
What then will become of the genius and the hero if so many are 
pressing forward to the front in the career which intellect is 
running? Where will be the contrasts which constitute their 
existence ? The glory of the genius and the hero will fade in the 
light of equality, and if a number of aspirants become qualified 
for those elevated positions, there will be no genius and no hero. 
I believe we are drifting in that direction. These attractive 
personages will disappear under a system of analysis and detail, 
and eke on their existence only in a world of romance and imagi- 
nation. They have shone brilliantly because there has been no 
diffused light. How much they have been indebted for their glory 
in the past to painstaking diligence in detail on the part of obscure 
industry we shall never know, but the time has come when they 
must give place to patient, sedulous, unswerving labour. 
Is there a genius or a hero now alive ? Is it likely that any 
now living will occupy such lofty places as those words imply 
in the history or the romance yet to be written ? I do not know 
a reputation towering so high above its fellows as to present the 
needful contrasts. But there are increasing thousands who are 
steadily treading the path of progress which I have endeavoured 
faintly to indicate, and carefully sharing amongst themselves by 
division and subdivision the work which lies before them. The 
division and subdivision of labour is not only a necessity in the 
economy of wealth, but it is the inevitable consequence of every 
operation of the mind, conducted by a process of minute investi- 
gation in detail. The number of subjects, as the work proceeds, 
increases as fast as, or faster than, the number of minds engaged 
in the service. The work is never overtaken. The more we dis- 
cover, the more we find there remains to discover. The more we 
investigate detail, the more detail we find to investigate. The 
operations of a great number of minds in various directions, 
divided and subdivided in their work, Avith one common object, 
which we will call the discovery of truth, cannot be conducted 
except by a complete, thorough, systematic organization. 
