THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



IOI 



ernes and the arts. The attempt to 

 unify knowledge on the lines of a 

 particular philosophical system must 

 naturally fail. No one supposes that 

 a conference at the Hague will give the 

 world enduring peace, or that a con- 

 gress at St. Louis will unify the sci- 

 ences. Indeed there are those who hold 

 that science will be unified only when it 

 is dead, and that any scheme of unifica- 

 tion is more useful in promoting con- 

 troversy than in prescribing a final 

 solution. It is probable that very few 

 of the speakers were even aware of 



plished, the main result being the 

 bringing of a hundred leading foreign 

 scholars to this country. Not only at 

 the congress, but in their visits to 

 other places, they have taught us many 

 things, and it may be hoped have 

 learned some things from us. The 

 two hundred thousand dollars expended 

 is a considerable sum, and possibly 

 still more might have been accom- 

 plished with it. It is doubtful whether 

 the limitation of the meeting to a 

 single week represents any advance 

 over the series of congresses of the 



Palace of Machinery. 



Professor Munsterberg's plan or had 

 read his article in the Atlantic 

 Monthly. The addresses that dealt 

 with some special problem to which the 

 author had contributed were the best. 

 The divisions intended to unify the sci- 

 ences were superfluous. As a matter 

 of fact it is more feasible and more 

 profitable to unify men of science than 

 to perfect a logical scheme of the 

 sciences, and in this direction the con- 

 gress was only moderately successful. 

 Incidentally much was indeed accom- 



Paris exposition. If the dormitories 

 of Washingeon University, with a 

 proper dining-room and rooms for ses- 

 sions and social intercourse, had been 

 placed at the disposal of our national 

 societies, and they had held a series 

 of meetings during the summer, with 

 perhaps one week for general addresses 

 by a score of invited scholars, the re- 

 sults would probably have been better. 

 As it was the week of the congress 

 was overcrowded. Each of the some 

 three hundred speakers addressed an 



