354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE ENDOWMENT OF SCIENTIFIC EESEAECH. 



By RICHAED A. PEOCTOR. 



THERE are questions admitting, when viewed in the abstract, of 

 but one answer, which yet, considered in their practical aspect, 

 present difficulties that are almost, if not wholly, insuperable. Among 

 them must be reckoned one which before long will attract, as it pre- 

 eminently deserves, the attention of the nation the question whether 

 it is desirable that the investigation of natural facts, regarded as a 

 vocation, should be publicly endowed. 



When I say that but one answer can be given to this question, 

 viewed in the abstract, I draw two distinctions : 1. I consider only 

 the question whether science deserves public recognition ; and, 2. I 

 suppose the question submitted only to those who can properly con- 

 sider it those, namely, who are at least acquainted with scientific 

 methods, if not versed in scientific subjects. To many it may prob- 

 ably appear a matter of small importance whether science advance or 

 stand still. The general public scarcely recognizes the position which 

 Science has already taken, still less the position she is about to take. 

 Men do not perceive that the gradual advance of science must modify 

 the condition of the human race, not in material matters alone, but 

 even more by its influence on the feelings and emotions. In the course 

 of time and of no very long time, if future progress accords with pres- 

 ent promise the motives now most potent among men will yield to 

 worthier influences, arising from clearer insight into physical, physio- 

 logical, and psychological laws. Science, using the word in its best 

 sense, has now a limited extension ; but it is as a leaven in the midst, 

 by which the whole lump will be leavened. In the mean time, men 

 attend, as of yore, to matters which they regard as far more important 

 than the growth and spread of knowledge matters which have made 

 up the history of the nations during many centuries, but have tended 

 little to the advancement of mankind. Political plotting and counter- 

 plotting, within each nation and among difierent nations ; the prej^ara- 

 tion and employment of armaments thus rendered necessary ; legisla- 

 tion by which class distinctions are strengthened and class dislikes 

 intensified ; the workina: out of social arranarements barbaric in origfin 

 and absurd in most of their developments ; controversies over reli- 

 gious questions more or less closely associated with primeval super- 

 stitions these and such as these are the occupations to which the 

 world mainly devotes the energies not absorbed in the general strug- 

 gle for existence. Science, in the mean while, conscious of its strength 

 and certain of its future, can afibrd to wait, "Its development," as 



