John Herschel Quote

The sparks of information from time to time struck out, instead of glimmering for a moment, and dying away in oblivion, began to accumulate into a genial glow, and the flame was at length kindled which was speedily to acquire the strength and rapid spread of a conflagration.

A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, Part III, Chapter VI, Section 383 (p. 348), Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green.