82 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



used to enlarge human power or to alleviate human suffering. There 

 is no fact so remote as to have no possible bearing on human utility. 

 Every new conception falls into the grasp of that higher philanthropy 

 which rests on the comprehension of the truths of science. For sci- 

 ence is the flower of human altruism. No worker in science can stand 

 alone. None counts for much who tries to do so. He must enter into 

 the work of others. He must fit his thought to theirs. He must stand 

 on the shoulders of the past, and must crave the help of the future. 

 The past has granted its assistance, to the fullest degree of the most 

 perfect altruism. The future will not refuse ; and, in return, whatever 

 knowledge it can take for human uses, it will choose in untrammeled 

 freedom. The sole line which sets off utilitarian science lies in the 

 limitation of human strength and of human life. The single life must 

 be given to a narrow field, to a single strand of truth, following it 

 wherever it may lead. Some must teach, some must investigate, some 

 must adapt to human uses. It is not often that these functions can be 

 united in the same individual. It is not necessary that they should be 

 united ; for art is long, though life is short, and for the next thousand 

 years science will be still in its infancy. We stand on the threshold of 

 a new century; a century of science; a century whose discoveries of 

 reality shall far outweigh those of all centuries which have preceded it ; 

 a century whose glories even the most conservative of scientific men 

 dare not try to forecast. And this twentieth century is but one — the 

 least, most likely — of the many centuries crowding to take their place 

 in the line of human development. In each century we shall see a 

 great widening of the horizon of human thought, a great increase of 

 precision in each branch of human knowledge, a great improvement in 

 the conditions of human life, as enlightenment and precision come to 

 be controlling factors in human action. 



In the remaining part of this address I shall discuss very briefly 

 some salient features of practice, investigation and instruction in those 

 sciences which in the scheme of classification of this congress have been 

 assigned to this division. In this discussion I have received the inval- 

 uable aid of a large number of my colleagues in scientific work, and 

 from their letters of kindly interest I have felt free to make some very 

 interesting quotations. To all these gentlemen (a list too long to be 

 given here) from whom I have received aid of this kind I offer a most 

 grateful acknowledgment. 



Engineering. 



The development of the profession of engineering in America has 

 been the most remarkable feature of our recent industrial as well as 

 educational progress. In this branch of applied science our country 

 has come to the very front, and this in a relatively short time. To this 

 progress a number of distinct forces have contributed. One lies in the 

 temperament of our people, their motive force, and their tendency to 



