678 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and may it never be of use to anybody," is not the thought 

 to which I should ever say " hear, hear," even as an after-dinner 

 sentiment. 



" I want to know " is indeed the most natural of all ex- 

 pressions in the mouth of a student of science. To the practical 

 man of affairs, of whom immediate and decisive action is 

 required, what can be of more indispensable necessity than 

 the clear and comprehensive knowledge that can rightly guide 

 his immediate and decisive action ? 1 believe that no man 

 has ever been sufficiently sensible of this need until he has 

 been placed in circumstances that have forced him to take 

 action in the absence of such knowledge. And the medical 

 profession, where the watchword is, or should be, " I want 

 to help," is above all other professions that in which there 

 is most call for mutual help between the man whose first duty 

 is to know and the man whose first duty is to help. The 

 immediate aim of each is different, the ultimate aim of both should 

 be the same — to contribute his best endeavour to the common- 

 wealth of knowledge and of power. Yet the man who only 

 "wants to know " is too prone to despise the practical requests 

 of the man who " wants to help " ; and the man who " wants 

 to help " is too prone to ignore the service of the man who 

 " wants to know." Each can help and teach the other, but the 

 scientist must also want to help, as the physician must also 

 want to know. 



There is apt to be a kind of antagonism between the mind of 

 the practical man and the mind of the scientific man. And if 

 they never meet, that antagonism remains unopposed and futile 

 or mischievous — the worst form of mental paralysis is paralysis 

 ignorans. Let them meet, therefore — best of all let them meet in 

 the common-room of their University — and from their opposed 

 and complementary forces new mental strength will arise in the 

 service of the commonwealth. Their antagonism will become 

 co-operative and effective. 



Co-operative Antagonism. — We are apt to be fretted by 

 opposition. Our opponent is so entirely in the wrong and so 

 wilfully obstructive of our plans and efforts. But for his 

 blind or malicious hindrance it would have been so easy for 

 us to " triumph over difficulties." Not so. Opposition and 

 difficulty are of the essence of all achievement. The obstacles 



