liv Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



reached a stage where it begins to reveal to us a glimpse — 

 just a glimpse — of enormous possibilities of future power. 

 A few years ago the study of Lenard rays and Roentgen rays 

 might well have been regarded by the unscientific as only a 

 pastime for the leisure of the philosopher. But to-day, as 

 discovery has advanced, there are disclosed to us in the trans- 

 formation of radium sources of almost limitless energy in the 

 universe. We cannot avoid the thought that there is at least 

 a remote possibility that in the intra-atomic energy thus dis- 

 closed the applied science of the future may secure sources of 

 power incomparably greater than those now at our command; 

 sources of power which, if set at work, would revolutionize 

 our civilization, both on its material and social sides. This 

 is only one item in that capital fund of knowledge which 

 research is accumulating, to be drawn upon by the applied 

 science of the future. This item may not finally prove a 

 valuable asset, but no one who knows the past can doubt 

 that if not here, then elsewhere in the stores of science is the 

 knowledge which will revolutionize the conditions of life for 

 future generations. 



In human knowledge then, in science, lies the only assur- 

 ance of human power for generations still to come. The in- 

 tellectual temper of a people, therefore — that temper which 

 determines their attitude toward research — becomes a factor 

 of prime importance in their permanent prosperity and happi- 

 ness; and this is the other phase of the intellectual relations 

 of science of which I would speak. What will men do for 

 science as the world grows older? The reply to this question 

 determines, so far as intellectual matters go, the possibilities 

 of future success. Will men with keen enthusiasm, with undi- 

 minished power and interest, press forward to secure the 

 knowledge of the unknown world beyond them ? Or will they 

 rest within the boundaries of the knowledge they have at- 

 tained, satisfied with spending the forces which they already 

 possess? Will men be so absorbed in their gains, in enjoying 

 the possession of the present, as to neglect the conditions of 

 life in the future? Will they cease to amass the knowledge 

 which the practical man of the future is to develop? Will 



