FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS 547 



produced in the students of pure science than in the students of 

 applied science, but note that this is only relatively true. Other 

 things must be considered. Where you can get one man to devote 

 himself to pure science, you can find a thousand to fill the ranks of 

 practical workers, so that you greatly multiply the actual chances of 

 discovering the why and the wherefore of things, and, at the same 

 time, you secure the enthusiasm derived from numbers. Also besides 

 the mere increase of chances arising from larger numbers, and the 

 immediate effect of numbers, we can claim for the workers in applied 

 science, under the best conditions,as remarkable a development of the 

 scientific spirit as has ever been recorded in the annals of pure science. 

 Take, for example, the great French chemist and naturalist, Pasteur, 

 who "has been able," as Ray Lankester justly says, "not simply 

 to pursue a rigid path of investigation dictated by the logical or 

 natural connection of the phenomena investigated, but deliberately 

 to select for inquiry matters of the most profound importance to the 

 community, and to bring his inquiries to a successful practical 

 issue in a large number of instances. . . . The discoveries made by 

 this remarkable man would have rendered him, had he patented 

 their application and disposed of them according to commercial 

 principles, the richest man in the world. They represent a gain of 

 some millions sterling annually to the community." 



Moreover, we must remember that what we have called pro- 

 fessionalism, though limited to a sphere which appeals to our indi- 

 vidual interest, is, after all, in part of its nature, very closely akin 

 to the scientific spirit inasmuch as it seeks for truth, and is often 

 imbued with the spirit which would spend itself in the effort to 

 achieve honest work, in the joy of overcoming, in the patient per- 

 formance of duty, or in the search for what will bring honor to 

 the profession. Therefore, in contrasting the spirit of professional- 

 ism with the scientific spirit, it is rather the element in profession- 

 alism that we may call commercialism which we wish to avoid 

 the way of estimating values by money value and of measuring our 

 interests by dollars and cents. 



Further, we cannot afford to condemn even commercialism in a 

 wholesale manner, as is often done. We are led to look for the ele- 

 ment of real value which must be there, when we find, for instance, 

 the last India budget pointing with satisfaction to the great in- 

 crease in bank deposits in spite of plague and famine, and when 

 we find, in general, that we are always able, to a certain extent, to 

 measure any nation's progress by its increase in riches. 



Let us notice, however, that the purely scientific man contrib- 

 utes greatly to the world's wealth, but seldom to his own, and has 

 to be supported by a world which knows the value of his work and 

 makes an appreciative entourage. Notice, also, that the study of 



