ORGANIZED SCIENCE 311 



penetration being made at some weak point, the discharge of a tor- 

 rent of investigative energy tears wide the gap, and spreads out be- 

 yond it. Scientific judgment is expressed in the funneHng of effort 

 into the newly created gap. But the original penetration is often a 

 discovery made by accident: the work of an apparently aimless wave 

 or wavelet— one among many which earlier broke everywhere against 

 a still unyielding barrier, and which still so break save at the breach. 

 The scientist's freedom in the initiation of research assures some 

 matching of problems with interests, capacities, and enthusiasms. 

 This is no trivial matter of the scientist's "happiness." Scientific work 

 often demands long-suffering perseverance in the face of an almost 

 endless series of disappointing checks. The chances of success are 

 then much increased by the scientist's interest in, and commitment 

 to, the problem he has himself chosen. Remarking how very deeply 

 the individual may come to identify himself with his own hypothesis, 

 Beveridge adds that: 



Knowing this, the tactful director of research tries to lead the worker 

 himself to suggest the line of work and then lets him feel the idea 

 was his. 



Under the laissez-faire system of the Invisible College this artifice is 

 wholly unnecessary. 



All arguments for a laissez-faire policy in science may seem in- 

 validated by the many telling attacks made on laissez-faire eco- 

 nomics. But the two contexts are utterly disparate in one crucial 

 respect. Some forecast can be made of the course of economic devel- 

 opment, but the course of scientific development may well encom- 

 pass not only the unforeseen but even the previously unimaginable. 

 We may, perfectly reasonably, deplore the tragic waste of men and 

 resources in unproductive scientific work. But the few outstanding 

 successes are product of the same process as the many undistin- 

 guished failures. We can no more legislate the one without the other, 

 Hoi ton implies, than we can decree the occurrence of progressive but 

 no regressive mutations. 



The Super-Personal Intelligence 



One cannot but agree with Reichenbach that 



The social character of scientific work is the source of its strength; 

 . . . the resultant of the contributions of the many intelligent indi- 



