A SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE COAL QUESTION. 65 



The practical value of new scientific knowledge as a source of 

 wealth and progress is incomparably greater than that of all the coal- 

 deposits, petroleum-springs, and gold-fields of the earth. This great 

 truth, though familiar to scientific investigators, is but little perceived 

 or appreciated by our rulers or by the mass of their electors ; and the 

 chief reason for this is the fact that they possess insufficient knowledge 

 of science. Even governments can only appreciate that which they 

 understand, and can only act as circumstances and public opinion 

 allow them, and when fettered by an ignorant population are power- 

 less to preserve a nation from decay. 



There can not be a more complete error than to suppose that new 

 knowledge discovered by means of scientific research is not practical- 

 Its immense practical value has been abundantly proved in a multi- 

 tude of cases. It was largely by means of such knowledge respecting 

 coal, its properties, constituents, and products gained by means of ex- 

 periments, that coal was applied to so many uses. One of the most 

 recent proofs of the practical value of such knowledge is the conver- 

 sion of the heat of coal into electric current and light in the dynamo- 

 electric machine and electric lamp ; the entire existence of these in- 

 struments arose from new knowledge discovered in purely scientific 

 researches by Davy and Faraday. It is not necessary to describe here 

 the exact beginnings of gas-lighting, phosphorus-matches, photogra- 

 phy, the voltaic battery, electro-plating, aniline dyes, telegraphy, the 

 telephone, etc. These, and a multitude of other utilities in common 

 use, had their earliest origin more or less completely, not in the labors 

 of the inventor or of the more directly practical man, but in those of 

 philosophical investigators whose experiments were made with the far 

 more widely practical* object the discovery of new scientific knowl- 

 edge. 



It is not the mere possession of good things, but making the best 

 and earliest use of them that most conduces to success. Our great 

 stock of coal lay comparatively useless as a source of national wealth 

 until philosophical investigators discovered its constituents and prop- 

 erties, and inventors applied these to useful purposes. Other nations 

 also possessed coal, and our greater success than theirs was largely and 

 essentially due to the fact that we were the earliest in applying it to 

 important and varied uses. We must not wait, therefore, for those 

 nations to discover for us new knowledge respecting natural forces 

 and substances, but discover it ourselves, in order that we may have 

 the first chance of applying those forces and substances to practical 

 uses, and of offering the useful products for sale or in exchange for 

 food and other commodities. 



It is well known that a man who has no faith in medicine will not 

 apply to a physician until death stares him in the face. Similarly the 

 average politician and the ordinary elector, having but little knowl- 

 edge of philosophical experiments or faith in them, will probably not 



VOL. XXTII. 5 



