i4o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



into something better or handsomer, and every year he pulled up nearly 

 all that he had and burned it in great windrows. And foolish people 

 said that he was a wizard and they came from great distances to see 

 him at his work. And there were a few who thought that they under- 

 stood. 



" There was once an old white-haired man who came to an as- 

 semblage of scholars, bringing with him two bars of wood connected 

 by bands of iron. Fifty-three years before he had left his home on 

 the bay of Quinte, in Ontario, to show these bars to the world and to 

 give to mankind what it never had before, control over ' The Uncon- 

 ditioned Force of the Universe.' This force through this little ma- 

 chine would ' revolutionize human industry, economize human labor 

 and relieve human want.' ' Gentlemen,' said the old man, ' I gave 

 up the free and easy life of the Canadian forests, I sought my home 

 among the dwellers of cities, I have sacrificed fifty-three years of my 

 life upon the altar of my desire to benefit mankind. In three weeks 

 more my invention will be perfected and through these bars the un- 

 conditioned force of the universe will do its works for you and for me. 

 The time has gone by,' he said, ' when the recognition of my principle 

 would have pleased my ambition. I love my race, and I wish to do 

 them good.' Two years more went by, the unconditioned force lacked 

 but a few days — just one more week — of accomplishment, and in that 

 week the old man died in the poorhouse of Monroe County, Indiana, 

 and in the dust and cobwebs in an attic of a neighboring college the 

 model of the machine to be controlled by the unconditioned force of 

 the universe still awaits the touch which for the first time shall make 

 it run ; and there were some who called the old man a ' wizard,' and 

 some a ' philosopher,' and because fame has forgotten his name, I 

 speak it here — Eobert Havens. And in both these cases, and in all 

 cases, what is our test of truth? 



" Not long ago, on the plains of Texas, by order of the government 

 of the United States, tons of gunpowder were exploded. A great noise 

 was made, the smoke arose to the skies, and then all was as before. 

 The purpose of this was to produce rain under conditions in which 

 common sense said rain was impossible. While these conditions re- 

 mained there was no rain, but the wisdom of the experiment has the 

 official stamp of the United States. 



" Not long ago, and I am sure that the good people of Alcade will 

 remember this, some enterprising men had bought the dry bed of a 

 river in southern California. It is filled with winter floods in the 

 rainy season, while in summer it is white with granite sand and barren 

 stones. At best its boulders can only produce a scant growth of chap- 

 paral and cactus. Yet when it was announced that a city was to be 

 built on this land, men grew wild at the thought. All night they 



