They will come out somewhere at last; they know not where
nor when: but they will come out at last, into the daylight and the
open field; and be told then--perhaps to their own astonishment--as
many a gallant soldier has been told, that by simply walking
straight on, and doing the duty which lay nearest them, they have
helped to win a great battle, and slay great giants, earning the
thanks of their country and of mankind.
And, meanwhile, if they get their shilling a-day of fighting-pay,
they are content. I had almost said, they ought to be content. For
science is, I verily believe, like virtue, its own exceeding great
reward. I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of
the man to whom, panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his
life under the tropic forest, Isis shall for a moment lift her
sacred veil, and show him, once and for ever, the thing he dreamed
not of; some law, or even mere hint of a law, explaining one fact;
but explaining with it a thousand more, connecting them all with
each other and with the mighty whole, till order and meaning shoots
through some old Chaos of scattered observations.
Is not that a joy, a prize, which wealth cannot give, nor poverty
take away? What it may lead to, he knows not. Of what use it may
become, he knows not. But this he knows, that somewhere it must
lead; of some use it will be.
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