and by means of the telescope it was ascertained that Venus has phases
like the moon;--the confidence of Copernicus was justified. The
scientific career of M. Ampère, the illustrious natural philosopher,
supplies an analogous fact. Trusting, like Copernicus, to a kind of
intuition of truth, he read one day to the Academy of sciences the
complete description of an experiment which he had never made. He made
it subsequently, and the result answered completely to his
anticipations. Genius is here raised to the second power, since it
possesses at once the gift of discovery and the just presentiment of its
confirmation; but these are exceptional cases, and in general we must
say, with Mithridates, that--


.... To be approved as true
Such projects must be proved, and carried through.[166]


We would encourage no one to attempt adventures so perilous, but would
call to mind in a great example what is the regular march of science.
Newton, after he had discovered the law which regulates the motions of
the heavens, sought the confirmation of it in an immense series of
calculations. A true ascetic of science, he imposed on himself a regimen
as severe as that of a Trappist monk, in order that his life might be
wholly concentrated upon the operations of the understanding; and it was
not until after fifteen months of persistent labor that he exclaimed: "I
have discovered it! My calculations have really encountered the march of
the stars. Glory to God! who has permitted us to catch a glimpse of the
skirts of His ways!" And astronomy, placed upon a wider and firmer
basis, went forward with new energy.