But, above all, there is wanting genius. Our books of science,
as they improve in accuracy, are in danger of losing the freshness
and vigor and readiness to appreciate the real laws of Nature,
which is a marked merit in the ofttimes false theories of the
ancients. I am attracted by the slight pride and satisfaction,
the emphatic and even exaggerated style in which some of the
older naturalists speak of the operations of Nature, though they
are better qualified to appreciate than to discriminate the
facts. Their assertions are not without value when disproved.
If they are not facts, they are suggestions for Nature herself to
act upon. "The Greeks," says Gesner, "had a common proverb
(
) a sleeping hare, for a dissembler or
counterfeit; because the hare sees when she sleeps; for this is
an admirable and rare work of Nature, that all the residue of her
bodily parts take their rest, but the eye standeth continually
sentinel."
Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly
added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the
theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to
arrive at imperfect conclusions; but the power to perceive a law
is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little
on the number of facts observed.
Pages:
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548