THE SCIENCE OF THE PRESENT PERIOD. 25 



ena, to fill up the interior of the outlined scheme, which more accurate 

 observations unfolded in continually increasing richness." Contem- 

 poraneously with the general thoughts requiring elaboration, have 

 arisen such new methods of research as spectral analysis and chronos- 

 copy, making possible conclusions that had not before been thought of. 

 Not only have the world's trade likewise greatly enlarged to beyond 

 any extent which it had previously attained and numerous scientific 

 journeys contributed an overwhelming mass of new materials to the 

 observing sciences, but an inexhaustible treasury has long been acces- 

 sible to them at the zoological stations. The excavations methodically 

 carried on unobtrusively, at different points of the old grounds of cult- 

 ure, are inundating antiquaries with a flood of discoveries, enough to 

 engage the industry of generations. 



What can be more desirable than for hosts of laborers, satisfying 

 themselves with the solution of minute problems, to be occupying all 

 the places with their restless activity ? Why should there not be in 

 the pursuit of science, as in a factory, men at the vise giving valuable 

 service, even if they do not know what is to be done with the piece at 

 which they are filing ; foremen who know how to adjust the parts, 

 yet are not informed as to the destination of the whole ; and still fur- 

 ther sighted, more deeply initiated masters ? Art also laments the 

 lack of prominent talent under the generally elevated condition of 

 culture ; aside from casual instances of the production of talent, it 

 may be that we are only deceived through the unremarked grada- 

 tion of so many fellow-workers. The superfluity of aids at our com- 

 mand naturally causes a depreciation of these workers, in accordance 

 with the accepted law of the statics of the passions. Finally, if by 

 the force of precarious social conditions there are not only absolutely 

 but also relatively more young men to whom science is not the ex- 

 alted, heavenly goddess, but a milch-cow, that is but a small mat- 

 ter to the great whole. In this, as in many other human affairs, 

 ethical and rcsthetical demands unfortunately concur only in the sec- 

 ond line. 



It all depends rather on the fact that something is accomplished, less 

 on how it is done. The more industriously and at the more places 

 anything is done from those motives, the more speedily does the ap- 

 parent interruption pass off, and the more securely and broadly is the 

 basis laid for new advances. It may be years or decades, the time 

 will come when investigation will collect her energies, no longer scat- 

 tered through a swarm of questions demanding priority of solution, for 

 the attack upon the highest problems now before us : What is gravity ? 

 AVhat is electricity ? What is the mechanism of chemical combustion ? 

 And what is the constitution of the elements that have not been de- 

 composed ? It will solve them, for, the more definitely we set the 

 limits of the knowledge of nature, the more securely can we build 

 on the possibility of knowledge within those limits. Beyond those 



