SCIENCE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 239 



attain some practical end, and in later stages also the same object still 

 holds an important place. The desire to observe religious festivals 

 regularly has stimulated the study of astronomy in order to obtain 

 exact measurements of time. Among the Hindoos mathematics was 

 stimulated by the requirements of religious worship in making their 

 altars and laying out their courts. And according to Max Mueller 3 

 they also struggled with the problem of making a square altar of the 

 same size as a round one. In Egypt, geometry got its stimulus from 

 the need of parcelling out the land fertilized by the Nile. The progress 

 of architecture also increased man's knowledge of mathematics and 

 physics. The great European cathedrals were built before scientific 

 works upon architecture appeared. It is said that the needs of Alex- 

 ander's campaigns in Persia stimulated the study of mathematics and 

 physics. And the desire to save human life has always been a great 

 stimulus to the study of biology. These are simply a few illustrations 

 of the kind of stimuli which have been most potent in the advance- 

 ment of science. 



After science has attained a start, if social conditions are favorable, 

 it will progress without the immediate incentive of a practical need. 

 As knowledge advances men begin to recognize its general value and 

 try to extend it in every direction, believing in its ultimate, if 

 not in its immediate, usefulness to mankind. This is science for 

 the sake of science and is represented by the present period of sci- 

 entific development. Such a method of increasing knowledge is 

 never purely arbitrary, however. Not all truth is considered of 

 the same value at a given epoch. If scientists have not always in view 

 some practical end, they are more likely to be interested in those de- 

 partments of knowledge which have a bearing on the immediate need 

 of society. It will be observed, therefore, that this last influence, sci- 

 ence for the sake of science, is not wholly separated from the preceding 

 one, science for the sake of art, although a new motive is present. In 

 addition to the need of solving an immediate problem, the value of all 

 positive knowledge is recognized and becomes a new incentive in stimu- 

 lating a study of the sciences. 



With this brief enumeration of the chief causes of the progress of 

 science, we may turn to the consideration of the conditions under which 

 the pursuit of science is most likely to flourish. It seems probable that 

 science is somewhat more likely to advance, at least after a start has 

 been made, in cold or in temperate climates, than in warm climates. 

 According to Professor Cattell's "Study of Eminent Men" 4 France has 

 produced the largest number of scientists of any country, and England 

 the next largest. This order is true not only in the absolute number, but 



3 "Origin of Keligion," p. 142. 



4 The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXIL, No. 4, February, 1903. 



