ence,  and  the  increased  honor  of  the  earnest  minds  that  are  devoted
to  it.     The  new  philosophy  will  supply  fresh  and  nobler  subjects,
unhoped-for  insight,  a  loftier  aim,  and  therefore  a  higher  scientific
dignity.     It  will  discard  none  but  aimless  labors,  without  principle
and  without  character ;  as  in  Physics,  there  is  no  room  for  compi-
lations of  empirical  observations ;  and  at  the  same  time,  philosophy
will  render  justice  to  the  zeal  of  students  of  a  past  generation,  who,
destitute  of  the  favorable  guidance  which  we,  of  this  day,_enjoy,  fol-
lowed up  their  laborious  historical  researches  with  an  instinctive
perseverance,  and  in  spite  of  the  superficial  disdain  of  the  philoso-
phers of  the  time.     No  doubt,  the  same  danger  attends  research
here  as  elsewhere :  the  danger  that,  from  the  continuous  use  of  sci-
entific theories,  the  observer  may  sometimes  pervert  facts,  by  erro-
neously supposing  them  to  verify  some   ill-grounded  speculative
prejudices  of  his  own.     But  we  have  the  same  guard  here  as  else-
where— in  the  further  extension  of  the  science :  and  the  case  would
not  be  improved  by  a  recurrence  to  empirical  methods,  which
would  be  merely  leaving  theories  that  may  be  misapplied  but  can
always  be  rectified,  for  imaginary  notions  which  can  not  be  substan-
tiated at  all.     Our  feeble  reason  may  often  fail  in  the  application
of  positive  theories '  but  at  least  they  transfer  us  from  the  domain
of  imagination  to  that  of  reality,  and  expose  us  infinitely  less  than
any  other  kind  of  doctrine  to  the  danger  of  seeing  in  facts  that
which  is  not.
