NOTES 487 



soil his fingers with the common earth of everyday life. Even 

 Lord Kelvin said " that no great law in natural philosophy 

 has ever been discovered for its practical application " — though 

 no one based more patents on his own researches than did Lord 

 Kelvin. He may have been right in one sense, but certainly 

 not in all (and he cannot be accused of any form of snobbery). 

 Thus geometry was really founded for the purposes of archi- 

 tecture and navigation. Mechanics was created to assist the 

 engineer, and the theories of heat and of the conservation of 

 energy were probably generated by the steam-engine ; while 

 the entire science of pathology has simply been created for its 

 practical application as regards the prevention and cure of 

 disease. Certainly investigations which were apparently use- 

 less at the outset have often led to valuable practical applica- 

 tions ; but they were usually undertaken because the worker 

 knew that he must first solve general problems before applying 

 the solution to specific cases. We believe that all the great 

 theorists had practical applications before them like a distant 

 light even in the greatest darkness of their first efforts. Is 

 it likely that Newton, or Harvey, or Faraday did not pro- 

 phetically see that their work would some day benefit humanity ? 

 Nature is infinite, and it is therefore wise to toil in immediate 

 contact with human needs and not to lose oneself entirely far 

 away from the remotest utilitarian objects. In most cases 

 those who lose all touch of the useful in. their investigations 

 end by becoming useless themselves. They are above the 

 practical, and therefore become unpractical, and finally im- 

 possible. 



Perhaps the worst form of scientific snobbery is the pre- 

 tence that the man of science is absolutely above cash in any 

 form. Let us distinguish. To effect discovery, a man must 

 concentrate all his energies upon a single point ; he has no 

 time to watch the share market; or to promote companies in 

 connection with his findings ; and it will be lucky if he suc- 

 ceeds in making any advance at all even with all his energies 

 bent upon the point of issue. In that sense, therefore, he must 

 ignore cash. But even here various circumstances should 

 influence him. If he is a bachelor, he may do as he pleases, 

 and may live as a recluse upon brown bread and water in a 

 monk's cell if he wish. But if he has children or other depen- 

 dants, is he justified in allowing them to be brought up un- 



