A PLEA FOR PURE SCIENCE. 175 



enriched thousands and benefited each one of us? There arc also 

 those who have every facility for the pursuit of science, who have 

 an ample salary and every appliance for work, yet who devote them- 

 selves to commercial work, to testifying in courts of law, and to any 

 other work to increase their present large income. Such men would be 

 respectable if they gave up the name of professor, and took that of 

 consulting chemists or physicists. And such men are needed in the 

 community. But for a man to occupy the professor's chair in a promi- 

 nent college, and, by his energy and ability in the commercial applica- 

 tions of his science, stand before the local community in a prominent 

 manner, and become the newspaper exponent of his science, is a dis- 

 grace both to him and his college. It is the death-blow to science in 

 that region. Call him by his proper name, and he becomes at once a 

 useful member of the community. Put in his place a man who shall 

 by precept and example cultivate his science, and how different is the 

 result! Young men, looking forward into the world for something 

 to do, see before them this high and noble life, and they see that there 

 is something more honorable than the accumulation of wealth. They 

 are thus led to devote their lives to similar pursuits, and they honor 

 the professor who has drawn them to something higher than they might 

 otherwise have aspired to reach. 



I do not wish to be misunderstood in this matter. It is no dis- 

 grace to make money by an invention, or otherwise, or to do com- 

 mercial scientific work under some circumstances. But let pure science 

 be the aim of those in the chairs of professors, and so prominently 

 the aim that there can be no mistake. If our aim in life is wealth, let 

 us honestly engage in commercial pursuits, and compete with others 

 for its possession. But if we choose a life which we consider higher, 

 let us live up to it, taking wealth or poverty as it may chance to come 

 to us, but letting neither turn us aside from our pursuit. 



The work of teaching may absorb the energies of many; and, indeed, 

 this is the excuse given by most for not doing any scientific work. But 

 there is an old saying, that where there is a will there is a way. Few 

 professors do as much teaching or lecturing as the German professors, 

 who are also noted for their elaborate papers in the scientific Journals. 

 I myself have been burdened down with work, and know what it is; 

 and yet I here assert that all can find time for scientific research if they 

 desire it. But here, again, that curse of our country, mediocrity, is 

 upon us. Our colleges and universities seldom call for first-class men 

 of reputation, and I have even heard the trustee of a well-lcno^Ti col- 

 lege assert that no professor should engage in research because of the 

 time wasted! I was glad to see, soon after, by the call of a prominent 

 scientist to that college, that the majority of the trustees did not 

 agree with him. 



