be considered final, so long as any problem remains
unresolved. The latest experimentator, brooding over hitherto
neglected details, may always hope to light upon some clue that shall
unravel the entire entanglement in a different manner, and reform upon
a new basis ideas now grouped in pretended fixity. The excitement
caused by this possibility is amply sufficient to stimulate research.
And there is no need to discover an immediate practical application
for the theory in order to bait the interest of vulgar minds. These
would always be incapable of such difficult investigations, while
really competent students were supremely indifferent to all lesser
advantages attached to the discovery of truth. As for me, I had been
so long removed from active life and its necessities (for my
professional career had as yet been too facile and commonplace to
arouse me to them), that the impractical character of the subject
constituted for me an additional charm. I recognized that it belonged,
for the present at least, to the region of pure thought, pure science,
accessible only to intelligences refined by nature, and enriched by
superior culture. In addition, therefore, to the intrinsic interest
of the problem, and the solid satisfaction arising from acute
intellectual activity, I could, in pursuit of this theme, experience
all the subtle pleasure derived from a consciousness of personal
superiority--pleasure as attainable in solitude as elsewhere since the
superiority was too real and unquestionable to require the
confirmatory suffrage of the crowd.

I abandoned all other studies, and threw myself impetuously into the
current of these newly-received ideas. I ransacked my library, from
Herophilus to Haller, from Galen to Helmholtz. England, Germany,
Italy, France yielded up their tribute to my excited curiosity. And
the theme, shifted, refracted from intellect to intellect, multiplied
itself to bewildering complexity.

Not content with reading, I performed experiments, repeating those of
my predecessors, and inventing new to control their conclusions. "With
my own hands I stirred the soil, fetid and palpitating with life," and
in this inmost intimacy with Nature felt myself grow strong, as Antaeus
by contact with the mother earth. Thus roused from my long torpor into
the most intense activity,--for all activity is slack in comparison
with that of thought,--I became dissatisfied with the facility of my
present surroundings. I was an