52 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



equally true is it that science never has existed, nor can it be conceived 

 as existing wholly apart from the world of other interests. For in- 

 stance, science simply could not be without objects of nature to operate 

 on, and appliances such as instruments and chemicals and literature to 

 work with. And more interesting still from the standpoint of method, 

 verification and confirmation (almost always by more than one worker) 

 are entirely essential to science. Science is as certainly communal as 

 it is individual. 



The communal functions of science on the material side are suffi- 

 ciently recognized in what is known as modern civilization. The incal- 

 culable worth of " applied science," commonly so-called, for human life 

 under this type of culture is questioned to only a negligible extent. 

 There is no need of either exposition or apologetic on behalf of this 

 aspect of science. 



Not so with science in its relation to the higher, the spiritual, life 

 of men. Looked at from this standpoint it is truly surprising that the 

 value attached to science should be so largely that of physical utility. 

 To be sure, there is a rather general recognition that science, or certain 

 aspects of it, are valuable for mental discipline, especially of the powers 

 of observation. It is allowed, too, that science has an important func- 

 tion in delivering men from superstition. Beyond this little is claimed 

 for science as a contributor to the higher needs and life of humanity. 

 All along the line, educators, publicists, clergymen, politicians, journal- 

 ists and, surprisingly, scientific men themselves, appear to take it for 

 granted that the office of science is primarily to minister to man's bodily 

 needs, and secondarily to sharpen his wits. If anything beyond this 

 comes from it, so current opinion holds, this is quite incidental and 

 secondary. 



My belief is that science must justify its right to live and flourish, 

 not alone by its ministrations to physical well-being, but also to the 

 higher and highest reaches of man's nature. While 1 do not for a 

 moment subscribe to the view held by a few, that science is everything, 

 that by and by it will supplant religion, philosophy, ethics, art and the 

 rest, I am fully persuaded that as civilization advances it must become 

 ever more and more an underpinning and ally of all these. 



The distinction between an institution of applied science and one 

 of pure science might be stated thus: The former is one the primary 

 aim of which is to use certain more or less well-established truths and 

 principles of science to the answering of man's needs and desires in 

 certain well-defined directions. For example, the Bureau of Soils of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture is for the purpose of 

 applying chemistry, physics and geology to the end of increasing the 

 productivity of the land of the United States. The Liverpool School 

 of Tropical Medicine is for the "perfection of physicians in tropical 



