ers, and I would again ask their inulgence for
details absolutely essential to my purpose, but
which would indeed be very wearisome, did they
not lead us up to an intelligent and most signifi-
cant interpretation of their meaning.

I should be glad to contribute my share to-
wards removing the idea that science, is the mere
amassing of facts. It is true that scientific results
grow out of facts, but not till they have been fer-
tilized by thought. The facts must be collected,
but their mere accumulation will never advance
the sum of human knowledge by one step; it is
the comparison of facts and their transformation
into ideas that lead to a deeper insight into the,
significance of Nature. Stringing words together
in incoherent succession does not make an intelli- x
gible sentence; facts are the words of God, and we
may heap them together endlessly, but they will
teach us little or nothing till we place them in
their true relations, and recognize the thought
that binds them together as a consistent whole.

I have spoken of the plans that lie at the
foundation of all the variety of the Animal
Kingdom as so many structural ideas which
must have had an intellectual existence in the
Creative Conception independently of any special
material expression of them. Difficult though
it be to present' these plans as pure abstract
formulæ, distinct from the animals that represent

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