claims for German men the credit of pursuing with
unflagging and self-denying industry, with purely ideal aims, and
without any immediate prospect of practical utility, the cultivation
of pure science. But that which has determined German superiority in
the fields referred to was, in his opinion, something different from
this. Enquiries into the nature of life are intimately connected with
psychological and ethical questions; and he claims for his countrymen
a greater fearlessness of the consequences which a full knowledge of
the truth may here carry along with it, than reigns among the
enquirers of other nations. And why is this the case? 'England and
France,' he says, 'possess distinguished investigators--men competent
to follow up and illustrate with vigorous energy the methods of
natural science; but they have hitherto been compelled to bend before
social and theological prejudices, and could only utter their
convictions under the penalty of injuring their social influence and
usefulness. Germany has gone forward more courageously. She has
cherished the trust, which has never been deceived, that complete
truth carries with it the antidote against the bane and danger which
follow in the train of half knowledge. A cheerfully laborious and
temperate people--a people morally strong--can well afford to look
truth full in the face. Nor are they to be ruined by the enunciation
of one-sided theories, even when these may appear to threaten the
bases of society.' These words of Helmholtz are, in my opinion, wiser
and more applicable to the condition of Germany at the present moment
than those which express the fears of Professor Virchow. It will be
remembered that at the time of his lecture his chief anxieties were
directed towards France; but France has since that time given ample
evidence of her ability to crush, not only Socialists, but
anti-Socialists, who would impose on her a yoke which she refuses to
bear.

In close connection with these utterances of Helmholtz, I place
another utterance not less noble, which I trust was understood and
appreciated by those to whom it was addressed. 'If,' said the
President of the British Association in his opening address in Dublin,
we could lay down beforehand the precise limits of possible knowledge,
the problem of physical science would be already half solved. But the
question to which the scientific explorer has often to address himself
is, not merely whether he is able