SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 325 



lished by the authority of Congress on geographical, geological, engi- 

 neering, and other subjects reports often in imposing quartos mag- 

 nificently illustrated. 



Not without interest may we explore the origin of the depreciation 

 of which we thus complain. In other countries it is commonly the 

 case that each claims for itself all that it can, and often more than is 

 its due. Each labors to bring its conspicuous men and its public acts 

 into the most favorable point of view ; each goes upon the maxim 

 that a man is usually valued at the value he puts upon himself. But 

 how is it with us ? Can any impartial person read without pain the 

 characters we so often attribute to our most illustrious citizens in po- 

 litical and, what is worse, in social life ? Can we complain if strangers 

 accept us at our own depreciation, whether of men or things ? 



We need not go far to detect the origin of all this it is in our 

 political condition. Here wealth, power, preferment preferment even 

 to the highest position of the nation are seemingly within the reach 

 of all, and in the internecine struggle that takes place every man is 

 occupied in pushing some other man into the background. 



I fear that in political life there is no remedy for this, such is the 

 violence of the competition, so great are the prizes at stake. But in 

 the less turbulent domain of science and letters we may hope for 

 better things. And those who make it their practice to decry the 

 contributions of their own country to the stock of knowledge may 

 perhaps stand rebuked by the expressions that sometimes fall from 

 her generous rivals. How can they read without blushing at their 

 own conduct such declarations as that recently uttered by the great 

 organ of English opinion, the foremost of English journals ? The 

 Times, which no one will accuse of partiality in this instance, says: 

 "In the natural distribution of subjects, the history of enterprise, dis- 

 covery, and conquest, and the growth of republics, fell to America, 

 and she has dealt nobly with them. In the wider and multifarious 

 provinces of art and science she runs neck and neck with the mother- 

 country, and is never left behind ! " 



There are among us some persons who depreciate science merely 

 through illiterate arrogance ; there are some who, incited by super- 

 ficiality, dislike it ; there are some who regard it with an evil eye, be- 

 cause they think it is undermining the placid tranquillity they find in 

 life-long cherished opinions. There are some who hate it because they 

 fear it, and many because they find that it is in conflict with their in- 

 terests. 



But let us who are the servants of Science, who have dedicated 

 ourselves to her, take courage. Day by day the number of those who 

 hold her in disfavor is diminishing. We can disregard their misrep- 

 resentations and maledictions. Mankind has made the great dis- 

 covery that she is the long-hoped-for civilizing agent of the world. 

 Let us continue our labor unobtrusively, conscious of the integrity of 



