It required more thoroughness, more
humble-minded industry, to match the magnitude of the task. And there
have been men of universal minds and comprehensive knowledge since
Bacon, Leibnitz, Goethe, Humboldt, men whose thoughts were at home
everywhere, where there was something to be known. But even for them the
world of knowledge has grown too large. We shall never again see an
Aristotle or a Bacon, because the conditions of knowledge have altered.
Bacon, like Aristotle, belonged to an age of adventure, which went to
sea little knowing whither it went, and ill furnished with knowledge and
instruments. He entered with a vast and vague scheme of discovery on
these unknown seas and new worlds which to us are familiar, and daily
traversed in every direction. This new world of knowledge has turned out
in many ways very different from what Aristotle or Bacon supposed, and
has been conquered by implements and weapons very different in precision
and power from what they purposed to rely on. But the combination of
patient and careful industry, with the courage and divination of genius,
in doing what none had done before, makes it equally stupid and idle to
impeach their greatness.
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