356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I am careful to deal with this point at the outset, because it re- 

 moves any difficulty which might arise from thequestion of the rela- 

 tive value, commercial or otherwise, of various departments of science, 

 or of different discoveries in any given department. Regarding sci- 

 ence as a means of culture, all scientific discoveries are valuable, 

 though not all equally so. Some which are least useful in the ordi- 

 nary sense are preeminently valuable in this respect. To take an ex- 

 ample from astronomy : Although it would be difficult to say that 

 any scientific discovery amnot possible/ confer material benefit on the 

 human race, I suppose no discovery could promise less in this way 

 than Sir W. Herschel's recognition of Avide-spreading nebulosity in 

 certain regions of the heavens. Follow out, however, the train of 

 thought that this discovery suggests, and it will be found that the 

 discovery has had an influence by no means insignificant in dispos- 

 sessing ideas which have wrought in tlieir day incalculable mischief. 

 As Draper has well said, in his " Conflict between Religion and Sci- 

 ence," the nebular hypothesis rests primarily on this discovery ; and 

 the recognition of the truth of that hypothesis compels us " to extend 

 our views of the dominion of law, and to recognize its agency in the 

 creation as well as in the conservation of the innumerable orbs that 

 throng the universe." Is this recognition of the reign of law barren ? 

 Let the reader of the history of the last five hundred years consider 

 only what would have been the influence, throughout that interval, 

 of a clearly-defined and widely-spread belief in the dominion of law, 

 and he will neither hesitate how to reply, nor question the value of 

 such a belief in future ages. The doctrine of the xiuiversality of law, 

 once understood by the masses, cannot but prove a safeguard against 

 excesses such as have been and continue to be committed in the name 

 of religion a safeguard even against the very existence of the super- 

 stitions to which such excesses are due. The belief in universal law, 

 regarded by many in these days as a rock ahead, will be one day 

 recognized as a breakwater against seas which have been heavy and 

 may be heavy yet again. 



In this way of estimating the value of science, and therefore the 

 importance of scientific research, "we may find an answer to the diffi- 

 culty which presents itself when we consider the actual position of 

 scientific workers the fact, namely, that the search for scientific truth 

 affords the worker no direct means of maintenance. A man may give 

 many years of labor to discover some great law of Nature, or some 

 important scientific fact, and when he has achieved success he may 

 find that his discovery is his sole reward. This, indeed, may be the 

 sole reward he has wrought for. Indeed, I think the true student of 

 science would wish to dissociate from his special subject of research 

 all idea of material reward. Yet it is as true of the minister and in- 

 terpreter of Nature as of the minister and interpreter of religion, that 

 " the laborer is worthy of his hire." 



