ABSTRACT
A substantial and exquisite piece of work could be produced if someone were to undertake to portray the peculiar faculties that the various fields of human knowledge require in order to expand successfully; the proper spirit in which they must be worked on and the relationship in which they must be placed to one another in order to accomplish, as a whole, the development of mankind. The mathematician, the naturalist, the artist, indeed even the philosopher commonly commence their business without knowing its real nature and without viewing it in its entirety; and indeed only the few later attain this higher standpoint and this more universal view. In an even worse position, however, is the person who does not choose one field exclusively but wishes to draw on them all for the benefit of his education. In the embarrassment of such choice and lacking the skill to utilize any of these fields beyond its narrow confines to his own more general end, he will sooner or later be forced to surrender himself to chance alone and to use whatever he takes up for inferior purposes only, or as a mere toy to pass the time. Herein lies one of the preeminent reasons for the frequent, not unjustified, complaints that knowledge remains idle and the cultivation of the mind unfruitful, that a great deal is achieved around us, but only little improved within us, and that the more generally and more immediately useful development of principles is neglected in favor of the higher scientific education of the mind that is suitable for only the few.
