Note 813 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

‘Cavendish and Watt both discovered the composition of water. Cavendish established the facts; Watt the idea.’ … ‘The attaching too high a value to the mere facts, is often a sign of a want of ideas.’ Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, London, 1851, p. 48. The last sentence of this illustrious philosopher, which I have put in italics, should be well pondered in England. If I had my way, it should be engraved in letters of gold over the portals of the Royal Society and of the Royal Institution.