William Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge

Abstract

WE frequently hear the complaint that as the boundaries of science are widened its cultivators become less of philosophers and more of specialists, each confining himself with increasing exclusiveness to the area with which he is familiar. This is probably an inevitable result of the development of science, which has made it impossible for any one man to acquire a thorough knowledge of the whole, while each of its sub-divisions is now large enough to afford occupation for the useful work of a lifetime. The ablest cultivators of science are agreed that the student, in order to make the most of his powers, should ascertain in what field of science these powers are most available, and that he should then confine his investigations to this field, making use of other parts of science only in so far as they bear upon his special subject.

William Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

An Account of his Writings, with Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence. By I. Todhunter., Honorary Fellow of St. John's College. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1876.)