NOTES 325 



shows (what is evident) that it is by no means easy to make a re- 

 liable valuation of it compared with the science of other countries, 

 He says : " What appears to be the truth is this, that each of the 

 leading civilised nations has its fair share of scientific discoveries 

 of first-rate importance, but that there is not sufficient evidence 

 for correlating special fertility in scientific discovery with any 

 nationality. Speaking now, not of men of intellectual eminence 

 but of real giants, we believe that the great discoverers represent 

 individual mutations. In its finest expression the discovering 

 spirit means a particular alertness, freshness, eagerness, insight, 

 and cerebral potential — born not made. The spot of light which 

 marks its emergence shifts from place to place, from nationality 

 to nationality, from race to race, from university to university. . . . 

 It is a rare spirit, sacred and inestimable, and moveth where it 

 listeth, no one being able to tell whence it cometh or whither 

 it goeth." True and fine words ; but we must always remember 

 that a large mass of science must be and is done by men who 

 can only be described as of intellectual eminence. Science must 

 f not only take positions against nature, but must make those 

 positions good, to use military language ; must dig and strengthen 

 the trenches and must bring up artillery and infantry in support. 

 The fact is that quite a number of important discoveries have 

 been made almost by accident. Oddly enough Prof. Thomson 

 omits the name of Newton from his lists. 



Brainless Britain 



What should we think, we wonder, if we saw a number of 

 grave and earnest men busily employed in a time of drought, 

 some in tying up the drooping petals of faded flowers, and 

 others in painting them to restore the freshness of their original 

 tints ? Would we not, with a contemptuous smile at their 

 obvious folly, recommend the application of a little water as 

 nourishment to the roots? And yet this is precisely what the 

 whole of Britain is doing to-day. It sees that its industries are 

 languishing and is trying to prop them up and revivify them as 

 they stand, instead of finding the cause of the disaster and 

 remedying that. The check of imports from Germany has 

 shown us suddenly and forcibly how many industries we have 

 lost. There is a shriek through the land for amendment, and 

 every one is looking to the large manufacturing firms in the 



