Under these
circumstances, I assure you, I would not exchange the moss on which I
sat for the greatest throne in Christendom."
"But surely you do not call such a poetical exordium a profession?"
remarked Becker.
"It must be admitted," said Wolston, "that the sun and trees have
their uses, especially when the one protects us from the other; the
sun, for example, dries up the moisture that falls from the trees, and
the trees shelter us from the burning rays of the sun. Still, I am at
a loss myself to connect these things with a profession in a social
point of view."
"What would you have thought," inquired Ernest, "if you had seen
Newton and Kepler gazing at the sky, before the one had determined the
movements of the celestial bodies, and the other the laws of
gravitation? What would you have thought of Parmentier passing hours
and days in manipulating a rough-looking bulb, that possessed no kind
of value in the eyes of the vulgar, but which afterwards, as the
potato, became the chief food of two-thirds of the population of
Europe? What would you think of Jenner, with his finger on his brow,
searching for a means of preserving humanity from the scourge of the
small-pox?"
"But these men had an object in view."
"Jenner, yes; but not the other two. They thought, studied,
contemplated, and reflected, satisfied that one day their thoughts,
calculations, and reflections would aid in disclosing some mystery of
Nature; but it would have perplexed them sorely to have named
beforehand the nature and scope of their discoveries.
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