EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATOR 137 



a knowledge of the laws of nature, which had been gained by men 

 whose work took precedence of theirs in logical order, and that 

 success in invention has been measured by completeness in such 

 knowledge. While giving all due honor to the great inventors, let 

 us remember that the first place is that of the great investigators, 

 whose forceful intellects opened the way to secrets previously hidden 

 from men. Let it be an honor and not a reproach to these men, that 

 they were not actuated by the love of gain, and did not keep utilita- 

 rian ends in view in the pursuit of their researches. If it seems that in 

 neglecting such ends they were leaving undone the most important 

 part of their work, let us remember that nature turns a forbidding 

 face to those who pay her court with the hope of gain, and is respons- 

 ive only to those suitors whose love for her is pure and undefiled. 

 Not only is the special genius required in the investigator not that 

 generally best adapted to applying the discoveries which he makes, 

 but the result of his having sordid ends in view would be to nar- 

 row the field of his efforts, and exercise a depressing effect upon his 

 activities. The true man of science has no such expression in 

 his vocabulary as "useful knowledge." His domain is as wide 

 as nature itself, and he best fulfills his mission when he leaves to 

 others the task of applying the knowledge he gives to the world. 



We have here the explanation of the well-known fact that the 

 functions of the investigator of the laws of nature, and of the in- 

 ventor who applies these laws to utilitarian purposes, are rarely 

 united in the same person. If the one conspicuous exception which 

 the past century presents to this rule is not unique, we should prob- 

 ably have to go back to Watt to find another. 



From this viewpoint it is clear that the primary agent in the 

 movement which has elevated man to the masterful position he now 

 occupies, is the scientific investigator. He it is whose work has de- 

 prived plague and pestilence of their terrors, alleviated human suffer- 

 ing, girdled the earth with the electric wire, bound the continent 

 with the iron way, and made neighbors of the most distant nations. 

 As the first agent which has made possible this meeting of his re- 

 presentatives, let his evolution be this day our worthy theme. As we 

 follow the evolution of an organism by studying the stages of its 

 growth, so we have to show, how the work of the scientific investi- 

 gator is related to the ineffectual efforts of his predecessors. 



In our time we think of the process of development in nature as 

 one going continuously forward through the combination of the 

 opposite processes of evolution and dissolution. The tendency of our 

 thought has been in the direction of banishing cataclysms to the 

 theological limbo, and viewing nature as a sleepless plodder, en- 

 dowed with infinite patience, waiting through long ages for results. 

 I do not contest the truth of the principle of continuity on which 



