NOTES 323 



it appears evident that none of the profits arising from " dis- 

 coveries made by institutions, associations, bodies, or individuals 

 in the course of researches aided by public money " are to go 

 to the discoverers ! What man then who is conscious of possessing 

 genius or talent is likely to take such money ? If he is wise he 

 will prefer to work out his own ideas at his own expense, so that 

 if there is profit in them, he himself will obtain it. As it stands, 

 the Scheme appears to us to be rather like one for doling out 

 loans to necessitous geniuses on a million per cent, usury. Some 

 good results will probably be obtained, but we fear that most 

 of the money will be wasted upon giving pifflers opportunities 

 for writing pot-boilers, and (a little better) for providing 

 instruments and small increments of salary to well-meaning 

 but evident plodders. Great science is not made in this way. 

 It requires immense labour, complete devotion, and, above 

 all, an intellectual capacity which is not possessed by the vast 

 majority of men — even of " scientists." But such men are not 

 always " fools " in the worldly sense. They often perceive 

 that though they may some day reach " Athene's gold," they 

 may also die in the attempt. And so they turn away, and the 

 ore remains concealed. Almost the whole problem of " the 

 encouragement of science " lies in this — how to keep such men 

 at their great task. They hear the cries of their children and 

 abandon it. Who loses? The World ; and there is no attempt 

 in the Scheme to solve this problem. 



The Sociological Society 



The Sociological Society conferred a boon on many when it 

 invited Mr. G. P. Gooch to read a paper on April 27, on 

 " German Theories of the State." At the present time every one 

 is speculating as to the real views of Germany, and such a 

 lecture, obviously based on the result of half a life-time's study, 

 goes far to raise the outlook of the public above the petty and 

 narrow views which are continuously voiced in our daily papers, 

 and gives some insight as to the point of view of nations other 

 than our own. The lecturer sketched the growth of Germany's 

 conception of the proper relation of the State to the individual, 

 the individual to the State, and the attitude that one State should 

 have to another, by presenting the opinions expressed by her 

 thinkers of the past, such as Humboldt, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, 

 Dahlmann, Stahl, and, in our own times, such men as Treitschke, 



