VAUGHAN ON VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KKSKARCH TO STATE. 31 



of the world have slowly developed intellectually and morally as well as 

 physically. 



As 1 have already stated, we must not be impatient because scientific 

 discoveries do not always lend themselves to immediate use. It may be 

 said that these discoveries are j^ems due; from the earth by one generation, 

 cut and })olished by Ihe rext, and used to adorn the third. l)uriii<»- the 

 past hundred years the world hns just begun to apply the most brilliant 

 au(i most important scientific discoveries. 



I want to say a few words concerning the conditions which are favor- 

 able to the advancement of scientific work, and first I may be permitted 

 to say just a few things concerning the scientific investigator himself. 

 It is sometimes stated that the research man is born, not made. This is 

 of course true, both literally and metaphorically, but by imj)lication it 

 means too much. We know not how many men who might have nuide 

 gieat discover es in science have been born but failed to benefit the world 

 on account < f hick of onportunities. The existence of the proper indi- 

 vidual is only cue of the factors in the production of a scientist. He must 

 h've the ojtjtoTtunity, and without it he is practically hel])less, or at least 

 the scope of his work is limited, and his strength is fettered. Is it at all 

 likely that the brilliant but somewhat erratic young Welchman who after- 

 w;)i-us <ievoio]ietl into Sir Humphrey Davy would have made the discov- 

 eries that he did had it not been that the Royal Institution offered him 

 the facilities. It is not likely that the unassuming, modest Michael 

 Fara'^y, the son of a blacksmith, and himself an apprentice of 

 a bonkhiu'Ter, would have made the wonderful discoveries that he did 

 both in physics and in chemistry had it not been that the opportunities 

 for ('oing so were supy)lied him by the same institution. Is it not true 

 that the sp-rt which led to the formation of the Royal Institution in the 

 last year of th? eighteenth century was necessary for the development of 

 such men as Davy, Farady, Dulton, Darwin. Tyndall. Huxley, and Spen- 

 cer. No man can become a skilled workman unless he has the tools to 

 work with. No man. however great his genius, can do scientific work 

 unless he has time and opportunity. A scientific man must have the 

 wic rewithal to su])iK)rt life. He must be free from the necessity of 

 looking for the practical ends. On this point please permit me to quote 

 again from Sir Humphrey Davy. He states: "Without facilities for pur- 

 suing his object, the gie'test genius in experimental research may live 

 an 1 die useless and unknown. Talents of this kind cannot like talents 

 for lit'ratcre and the fine arts call forth attention and respect. They 

 can neither give popular'ty to the names of patrons nor ornament their 

 lionscs. They are linr'ted in the-r effects, which are directed toward the 

 immutable interests of society. They cannot be made subservient to fash- 

 ion or cay)rCe; they must forever be attached to truth and belong to 

 natu'e. If we merely consider instruction in physical science, this even 

 re(]ulres an exuensive aT)paratus to be efficient: for without proper ocular 

 demonstratiors, all lectures must be unavailing, — things rather than 

 woids should be made the objects of study. A certain knowledge of the 

 beings and substances surrounding us must be felt as a want by every 

 cultivated mind. It is a want wh'ch no activity of thought, no books, no 

 course of reading or conversntion can supply. * * * To attempt with 

 insufficient means to support philosophy is merely to humiliate her and 



