WHAT KNOWLEDGE IS OF MOST WORTH? 281 



world. Necessary and eternal as are its truths, all Science concerns 

 all mankind for all time. Equally at present, and in the remotest 

 future, must it be of incalculable importance for the regulation of their 

 conduct, that men should understand the science of life, physical, 

 mental, and social; and that they should understand all other science 

 as a key to the science of life. 



And yet the knowledge which is of such transcendent value is that 

 which, in our age of boasted education, receives the least attention. 

 While this which we call civilization could never have arisen had it not 

 been for science; science forms scarcely an appreciable element in what 

 men consider civilized training. Though to the progress of science 

 we owe it, that millions find support where once there was food only 

 for thousands ; yet of these millions but a few thousands pay any respect 

 to that which has made their existence possible. Though this increas- 

 ing knowledge of the properties and relations of things has not only 

 enabled wandering tribes to grow into populous nations, but has given 

 to the countless members of those populous nations comforts and pleas- 

 ures which their few naked ancestors never even conceived, or could 

 have believed, yet is this kind of knowledge only now receiving a grudg- 

 ing recognition in our highest educational institutions. To the slowly 

 growing acquaintance with the uniform co-existences and sequences of 

 phenomena — to the establishment of invariable laws, we owe our 

 emancipation from the grossest superstitions. But for science we 

 should be still worshipping fetishes; or, with hecatombs of victims, 

 propitiating diabolical deities. And yet this science, which, in place 

 of the most degrading conceptions of things, has given us some insight 

 into the grandeurs of creation, is written against in our theologies and 

 frowned upon from our pulpits. 



Paraphrasing an Eastern fable, we may say that in the family of 

 knowledges, Science is the household drudge, who, in obscurity, hides 

 unrecognized perfections. To her has been committed all the work; 

 by her skill, intelligence, and devotion, have all the conveniences and 

 gratifications been obtained ; and while ceaselessly occupied ministering 

 to the rest, she has been kept in the background, that her haughty 

 sisters might flaunt their fripperies in the eyes of the world. The 

 parallel holds yet further. For we are fast coming to the denouement, 

 when the positions will be changed ; and while these haughty sisters sink 

 into merited neglect. Science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth and 

 beauty, will reign supreme. 



