90 RANSOME: NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL, SURVEY 



lingly supported by the people and this fact is significant in con- 

 nection with what I shall have to say later on the function of 

 education. As illustrations of this truth may be cited our 

 government Bureau of Ethnology and our large public museums. 

 Probably few who read the admirable government reports on the 

 aboriginal antiquities of our country and on the arts and customs 

 of the Indian tribes could point out any particular usefulness 

 in these studies; but they have to do with human life and their 

 popular appeal is undeniable. The average visitor to a museum 

 probably has little conception of what to a scientific man is the 

 real purpose of such an institution. He gazes with interest at 

 the contents of the display cases without realizing that by far 

 the greater part of the material upon which the scientific staff 

 is working or upon which investigators will work in future, is 

 hidden away in drawers and packing cases. The principle rec- 

 ognizable result so far as he is concerned is that he is interested 

 in what he sees and feels that he is being pleasantly instructed. 



In other words, it is as important for man to have his imagina- 

 tion quickened as to have his bodily needs supphed, and in minis- 

 tering to either requirement science is entitled to be called useful 

 or valuable. 



It may be remarked in passing that Pasteur's work had this 

 in common with pure science, or science pursued with the single 

 aim of adding to human knowledge, in that Pasteur himself 

 could not foresee all of the applications that would in future be 

 made of his discoveries. 



Enough, I think, has been said to show that the term "useful- 

 ness" as applied to science covers a wide range and that when em- 

 ployed by people of imagination and liberal culture may include 

 much more than when used by those whose only standard of 

 value is the unstable dollar. 



FUNCTIONS UNDER AN IDEAL AUTOCRACY 



If government were in the hands of a wise and benevolent 

 autocracy a national geological survey would be so conducted as 

 to be useful to the people whose taxes go towards its support; 

 but it would probably be useful in the broader sense that I have 



