660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



law of conservation which combines the energies of the material uni- 

 verse into an organic whole ; that law which enables the eye of science 

 to follow the flying shuttles of the universal power, as it weaves what 

 the Earth Spirit in " Faust " calls " the living garment of God." 

 This, then, is the largest flower of the garland which the science of 

 the last fifty years is able to offer to the Queen. 



The second generalization is like unto the first in point of impor- 

 tance, though very unlike as regards its reception by the world. For 

 whereas the principle of conservation, with all its far-reaching, and, 

 from some points of view, tremendous implications, slid quietly into 

 acceptance, its successor evoked the thunder-peals which it is said 

 always accompany the marriage of thought and fact. For a long 

 time the scent of danger was in the air. But the evil odor has passed 

 away ; the air is fresher than before ; it fills our lungs and purifies 

 our blood, and science, in its jubilee offering to the Queen, is able to 

 add to the law of Conservation the principle of evolution. 



In connection with these victories of the scientific intellect, I have 

 mentioned neither persons nor nationalities holding, as Davy ex- 

 pressed it, when the Copley medal was awarded to Arago, that 

 " science, like Nature, to which it belongs, is neither limited by time 

 nor space. It belongs to the world, and is of no country and no age." 

 Still, it will not be counted Chauvinism, if I say that in the establish- 

 ment of these two great generalizations Her Majesty's subjects have 

 quitted themselves like men. With regard to a third generalization, 

 neither England nor Germany has been idle. Omitting the name of 

 many a noble worker in both countries, the antiseptic system of sur- 

 gery assuredly counts for something in the civilized world. And yet 

 it is but a branch of a larger generalization, of momentous import, 

 which in our day has been extended and consolidated to an amazing 

 degree by a Gallic investigator. To some, however, any flower culled 

 in this garden will be without odor. Let me therefore add a sweet- 

 scented violet under the name of spectrum analysis which, besides re- 

 vealing new elements in matter, enables the human worker to stretch 

 forth his hand to sun and stars, to bring samples of them, as it were, 

 into his laboratory, and to tell us, with certainty, whereof they are 

 composed. Surely all these, and other discoveries of high importance, 

 taken and bound together, form an intellectual wreath, not unworthy 

 of Her Majesty's acceptance in her jubilee year. 



A short time ago an illustrious party leader summed up the politi- 

 cal progress of the Queen's reign. What I have said will, I trust, 

 show that the intellectual world is not entirely compounded of party 

 politics that there is a band of workers scattered over the earth 

 whose arena is the laboratory rather than the platform, and who noise- 

 lessly produce results as likely to endure, and as likely to influence for 

 good the future of humanity, as the more clamorous performances of 

 the politician. 



