try, and
neatness in manipulation, and accuracy and minuteness in observing and
registering the phenomena which occur, are essential. A steady hand and
a quick eye are most useful auxiliaries; but there have been very few
great chemists who have preserved these advantages through life; for the
business of the laboratory is often a service of danger, and the
elements, like the refractory spirits of romance, though the obedient
slave of the magician, yet sometimes escape the influence of his talisman
and endanger his person. Both the hands and eyes of others, however, may
be sometimes advantageously made use of. By often repeating a process or
an observation, the errors connected with hasty operations or imperfect
views are annihilated; and, provided the assistant has no preconceived
notions of his own, and is ignorant of the object of his employer in
making the experiment, his simple and bare detail of facts will often be
the best foundation for an opinion. With respect to the higher qualities
of intellect necessary for understanding and developing the general laws
of the science, the same talents I believe are required as for making
advancement in every other department of human knowledge; I need not be
very minute. The imagination must be active and brilliant in seeking
analogies; yet entirely under the influence of the judgment in applying
them. The memory must be extensive and profound; rather, however,
calling up general views of things than minute trains of thought. The
mind must not be, like an encyclopedia, a burthen of knowledge, but
rather a critical dictionary which abounds in generalities, and points
out where more minute information may be obtained. In detailing the
results of experiments and in giving them to the world, the chemical
philosopher should adopt the simplest style and manner; he will avoid all
ornaments as something injurious to his subject, and should bear in mind
the saying of the first king of Great Britain respecting a sermon which
was excellent in doctrine but overcharged with poetical allusions and
figurative language, "that the tropes and metaphors of the speaker were
like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of corn--very pretty, but
which did very much hurt the corn." In announcing even the greatest and
most important discoveries, the true philosopher will communicate his
details with modesty and reserve; he will rather be a useful servant of
the public, bringing forth a light f