524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



branches of the educational institutions is proceeding at a geometric 

 rate. 



In the strictly scientific aspect, the governmental work pertaining 

 to knowledge and control of the natural elements enters or occupies 

 the fields of astronomy, meteorology (including climatology), geology 

 (including mineralogy and paleontology), biology (including phytol- 

 ogy or botany, zoology, entomology, ornithology, ichthyology, etc.), 

 ecology, chemistry and physics — i. e., a large part of the concrete or 

 objective sciences; and it involves applications of all the abstract or 

 subjective sciences, and touches on that series of human sciences with 

 which the others are in a sense paired. In the strictly practical as- 

 pect, the work is directed specifically to the earth as affected by air 

 and water and sun in relation to life and growth, including that of 

 men and nations, along lines laid down in the organization of the 

 bureaus and departments; and there is little tendency to follow the 

 lines or occupy the fields of the conventional sciences. 



The developments of the last three decades indicate an unforeseen 

 trend: While the subjective sciences are continuing their steady ad- 

 vance as bases of definite knowledge, they are of lessening prominence; 

 the objective sciences are advancing much more rapidly both as appli- 

 cations of the primary sciences and as branches of definite knowledge 

 in themselves; yet the most rapid advance of all is in applications of 

 the objective sciences (with their subjective foundation) to special 

 lines or fields in strict accordance with the established methods and 

 principles. So the sum of definite knowledge is subdivided into ever- 

 multiplying specialties, while the applications become essentially sci- 

 entific in themselves; observation matures in experimentation, and 

 both purposes and the objects themselves are progressively modified in 

 ways which gradually become utilitarian, i. e., directly tributary to the 

 power and prosperity of men and nations. Meantime the specialties 

 rise to a new plane; in philosophic view (following the suggestions of 

 Sir William Hamilton and Lester F. Ward) they become conative or 

 — more abstractly — telic, and reflect that ever-springing desire for 

 betterment expressed by invention; in practical view by the light of 

 current progress they become directive, in that the specialist not 

 merely investigates but gradually brings under control and redirects 

 the natural development of the phenomena with which he deals. Now 

 this modern trend is too definite and too consistent to escape thought- 

 ful observers, and has indeed been widely recognized ; it may justly be 

 regarded as an expression of inherent tendency and a mark of natural 

 if not inevitable movement. It by no means necessarily indicates a 

 scientific decline, as some apprehend, but rather a normal readjustment 

 of the human mind to the external factors of human existence and 

 welfare; in fact, it but renders progressive and purposive that pre- 



