174 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



has the cake, which is the source of all crumbs? Shall we be swine, 

 to whom the corn and husks are of more value than the pearls? If I 

 read, aright, the signs of the times, I think we shall not always be con- 

 tented with our inferior position. From looking down we have become 

 almost blind, but may recover. In a new country, the necessities of life 

 must be attended to first. The curse of Adam is upon us all, and we 

 must earn our bread. 



But it is the mission of applied science to render this easier for the 

 whole world. There is a story which I once read that will illustrate 

 the true position of applied science in the world. A boy, more fond 

 of reading than of work, was employed, in the early days of the steam 

 engine, to turn the valve at every stroke. Necessity was the mother 

 of invention in his case: his reading was disturbed by his work, and 

 he soon discovered that he might become free from his work by so 

 tying the valve to some movable portion of the engine, as to make it 

 move its own valve. So I consider that the true pursuit of mankind 

 is intellectual. The scientific study of nature in all its branches, of 

 mathematics, of mankind in its past and present, the pursuit of art, 

 and the cultivation of all that is great and noble in the world — these 

 are the highest occupation of mankind. Commerce, the applications 

 of science, the accumulation of wealth, are necessities which are a curse 

 to those with high ideals, but a blessing to that portion of the world 

 which has neither the ability nor the taste for higher pursuits. 



As the applications of science multiply, living becomes easier, the 

 wealth necessary for the purchase of apparatus can better be obtained, 

 and the pursuit of other things beside the necessities of life becomes 

 possible. 



But the moral qualities must also be cultivated in proportion to the 

 wealth of the country, before much can be done in pure science. The 

 successful sculptor or painter naturally attains to wealth through the 

 legitimate work of his profession. The novelist, the poet, the musician, 

 all have wealth before them as the end of a successful career. But the 

 scientist and the mathematician have no such incentive to work, they 

 must earn their living by other pursuits, usually teaching, and only 

 devote their surplus time to the true pursuit of their science. And 

 frequently, by the small salary which they receive, by the lack of instru- 

 mental and literary facilities, by the mental atmosphere in which they 

 exist, and, most of all, by their low ideals of life, they are led to devote 

 their surplus time to applied science or to other means of increasing 

 their fortime. How shall we, then, honor the few, the very few, who, 

 in spite of all difficulties, have kept tlieir eyes fixed on the goal, and 

 have steadily worked for pure science, giving to the world a most 

 precious donation, which has borne fruit in our greater knowledge of 

 the universe and in the applications to our physical life which have 



