Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-29
THE POWER -s Sg ezNERAI1zA.

There is an excellent article in the last
number of the Roand Table, on Agassiz,
in which it is well remarked that " in no
one particular have the labors Of Agassiz
been more remarkable thai. in not allow.
ing his attention to detail to blind him to
a wide survey and philosophical deduc-
1t seems that he himself has been
careful to guard against this very failing,
and has remarked on il, as q curious fact
in the history Of progress, that a large
knowledge Of details often blind men to
the broader generalizations of principles
and relations Of the facts; so that the pio-
neers in any department often seem to OBJ
tain q more comprehensive recognition Of
the great principles underlying natural
phenomena, BY q sort Of intuidve insight,
than those who 90 further in knowledge
Of facts. Il takes the collection Of many
separate researches before the truths first
uttered are so verified as to be generally
received by the world. This is extensive.
ly the case in nearly all departments Of
science. Few men Of srea. attention to
the details Of many branches Of knowl.
edge become original discoveries in any
one. The minute phenomena interest
them so in detail that they do not seem to
suggest q comparison between themselves
and any other analogous train Of facts.
They do not excite any wonder or sur.
prise, and therefore do mol excite into &C.
ton that close study for the causes Of re-
lations which seem so much q matter Of
course. Genius, Coleridge thinks, is the
power Of seeing the wonderful in common
things. He who does not do this will
never make great discoveries. 1t is where
comparison and causation are brought
into full play that scientific generaliza-
tons are attained. And although the
practical effects Of a single established SCI
enti6c truth will often far exceed the ex-
pecta,ions Of the discoverer, the legitimate
results and radical consequences Of it on
other branches Of knowledge are generally
perceived quite early. This is why the
man Of real science often seems to the rest
Of the world a mailman or q visionary.
He sees consequences in a straight line
forward. This should teach US that in
education the object should not be to cram
the mind too full Of facts, or to hurry the
acquisition Of them to such q degree that
there is not time for each to be digested,
so as to produce the proper degree Of
meditation upon the general principles it
teaches, and which alone is science or true
knowledge. Many are thus forever pre-
vented from becoming truly educated
men, or producing anything new or valu.
able out Of all their studies.
It has often been remarked that the
greatest poets have not been produced in
the midday OF civilization and OF the per-
fiction Of the language in which they have
written, but rather in the early dawn, in
the chaos Of national thinking, when the
materials Of q nation or a language were
just forming themselves into ohape. Thus
David, the great Hebrew poet, rose when
the Hebrews were almost without sword
or spear, and he himself hunted BY half
barbaric hordes as a partridge on the
mountains. So was the Iliad composed
in a very similar chaotic period Of Grecian
history. The Inferno Of Dante was COM
posed in a like period of the Italian
tongue, while Shakespeare and Milton
were the product Of periods in which the
great revolution of religion and the grea,
political revolution Of the Commonwealth
caused English thought and English feel.
ing to heave and throb with volcanic
energy.