A PLEA FOR PURE SCIENCE. 173 



Bccing our artists reduced to hirelings, and imploring Congress to 

 protect them against foreign competition. We are tired of seeing our 

 countrymen take their science from abroad, and boast that they Jicre 

 convert it into wealth. We are tired of seeing our professors degrading 

 their chairs by the pursuit of applied science instead of pure science; 

 or sitting inactive while the whole world is oj3en to investigation; linger- 

 ing by the wayside while the problem of the universe remains unsolved. 

 We wish for something higher and nobler in this country of mediocrity, 

 for a mountain to relieve the landscape of its monotony. We are 

 surrounded with mysteries, and have been created with minds to enjoy 

 and reason to aid in the unfolding of such mysteries. Nature calls to 

 us to study her, and our better feelings urge iis in the same direction. 



For generations there have been some few students of science who 

 have esteemed the study of nature the most noble of pursuits. Some have 

 been wealthy, and some poor; but they have all had one thing in com- 

 mon — the love of nature and its laws. To these few men the world 

 owes all the progress due to applied science, and yet very few ever 

 received any payment in this world for their labors. 



Faraday, the great discoverer of the principle on which all machines 

 for electric lighting, electric railways and the transmission of p«wer 

 must rest, died a poor man, although others and the whole world liave 

 been enriched by his discoveries. And such must be the fate of the 

 followers in his footsteps for some time to come. 



But there will be those in the future who will study nature from 

 pure love, and for them higher prizes than any yet obtained are waiting. 

 We have but yet commenced our pursuit of science, and stand upon the 

 threshold wondering what there is within. We explain the motion of 

 th€ planets by the law of gravitation; but who will explain how two 

 bodies, millions of miles apart, tend to go toward each other with a 

 certain force? 



We now weigh and measure electricity and electric currents with 

 as much ease as ordinary matter, yet have we made any approach to an 

 explanation of the phenomenon of electricity? Light is an undulatory 

 motion, and yet do we know what it is that undulates? Heat is mo- 

 tion, yet do we know what it is that moves? Ordinary matter is a 

 common substance, and yet who shall fathom the mystery of its internal 

 constitution? 



There is room for all in the work, and the race has but commenced. 

 The problems are not to be solved in a moment, but need the best work 

 of the best minds, for an indefinite time. 



Shall our country be contented to stand by, while other countries 

 lead in the race? Shall we always grovel in the dust, and pick up the 

 crumbs which fall from the rich man's table, considering ourselves 

 richer than he because we have more crunabs, while we forget that he 



