59

Logic II 52.

A scientific man is likely in the course of a long
life to pick up a pretty extensive acquaintance with
the results of science; but in many branches, this is
so little necessary that one will meet with men
of greatest most deserved renown in science who will
tell you that, beyond their own little nooks, they hardly know
anything of what others have done. Sylvester always used to
say that he knew very little mathematics: true, he seemed
to know more than he thought he did. In various branches
of science, some of the most eminent men first took up
those subjects as mere pastimes knowing little or nothing
of the accumulations of knowledge. So it was with the
astronomer Lockyer: so it has been with many naturalists.
Now, did those men gradually become scientific
men of science as their stores of knowledge increased,
or was there an epoch in their lives, after before which
they were amateurs and after which they were scientists?