THE MAN OF SCIENCE IN PRACTICAL AFFAIRS. 489 



evitable end. In that borderland between business and research, 

 which is known as applied science, the scientific student is more 

 practical than the financier. When both work together, wealth is 

 produced, but the seedtime of abstract investigation always pre- 

 cedes the harvest. The commercial value of exact knowledge is 

 often very great, but to the prospective investor this truth is not 

 always evident. 



The practical value of the scientific training is perhaps most 

 fully recognized in Germany. There the importance of the inves- 

 tigator, the apparently abstract scholar, is thoroughly understood, 

 and to his work the great industrial advance of Germany is largely 

 attributable. In chemical and electrical industries this is particu- 

 larly true, and their growth can be directly traced to the influence 

 of the universities. The German professor is a man trained to 

 research, and from among his students many of the best investi- 

 gators are chosen for service in the factories. German competi- 

 tion in the commercial world is to-day the bugbear of other Euro- 

 pean countries, and its success is due, first of all, to the utilization 

 of trained intelligences. In our own country the importance of 

 applied science is fully realized and its achievements are beyond 

 dispute, but the scholar as yet receives less consideration than the 

 commercial expert. The latter is practical, the former is regarded 

 as visionary. Accurate knowledge is a good thing, but rule-of- 

 thumb experience is often thought to be better. It is only when 

 knowledge and experience join hands that the highest practical 

 results are attainable, the one factor tending to advance, the other 

 to perpetuate, industry. The man of affairs is not a practical man 

 until he appreciates the force of these propositions. 



At bottom the scientific training is a training in clear thought, 

 precise statement, accurate observation, the verification of evidence, 

 and the ascertainment of truth. Why should its recipient be un- 

 fitted for practical things? Good administration, the effective trans- 

 action of business, implies system, exactness, the judgment of evi- 

 dence upon its merits, and the prompt solution of problems as they 

 arise, and to each of these requisites the scientific education is 

 directly related. What other training is less likely to produce 

 dreamers, or more likely to develop efficient men? The main dis- 

 tinction between the workers in science and men of other vocations 

 is one of aim, a difference in ambition, perhaps a difference in the 

 point of view. The scientific scholar seeks to discover and possibly 

 to apply new truth; and after that his ambition is to win the recog- 

 nition of his fellows, to gain reputation, rather than to acquire 

 wealth. He may not be indifferent to the latter purpose, but it is 

 not his chief end. It is difficult to do both things well. 



