EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIG ATOE. 223 



success in invention has heen measured by completeness in such knowl- 

 edge. AVhile giving' all j\\\v honor to the great inventors, h't iis 

 remember that the first place is that of the great investigators, whose 

 forceful intellects opened the way to secrets previously hidden fi'om 

 men. Let it be an honor and not a reproach to these men that they 

 Avere not actuated In' the lo\-e of gain, and did not keep utilitarian 

 ends in view in the jnirsuit of their researches. If it seems that in 

 neglecting such ends they were leaving undone the most important 

 part of their work, let us remember that nature turns a forbidding 

 face to those who pay her court with the hope of gain, and is respon- 

 sive onl}^ to those suitors whose love for her is pure and undefiled. 

 Not only is the special genius required in the investigator not that 

 generally best adapted to applying the discoveries which he makes, 

 but the result of his having sordid ends in view would be to narroAV 

 the field of his ett'orts and exercise a depressing eft'ect upon his activi- 

 ties. The true man of science has no such expression in his vocabu- 

 lary as " useful knowledge." His domain is as wide as nature itself, 

 and he best fulfills his mission when he leaves to others the task of 

 applying the knowledge he gives to the world. 



We have here the explanation of the well-known fact that the 

 functions of the investigator of the laws of nature and of the 

 inventor who applies these laws to utilitarian ])urposes are rarely 

 united in the same person. If the one cons2)icuous exception wdiich 

 the past century presents to this rule is not unique, we should prob- 

 abty have to go 1)ack to Watt to find another. 



From this viewpoint it is clear that the primary agent in the move- 

 ment AAhicli has elevated man to the masterful ]>osition he now occu- 

 pies is the scientific investigator. He it is whose work has deprived 

 plague and pestilence of their terrors, alleviated human suft'ering, 

 girdled the earth with the electric wire, bound the continent with the 

 iron way, and made neighbors of the most distant nations. As the first 

 agent which has made possible this meeting of his representatives, 

 let his evolution be this day our v.-orthy theme. As we follow the 

 evolution of an organisoi l)y studying the stages of its growth, so we 

 have to shoAv how the work of the scientific investigator is related to 

 the ineffectual efforts of his pr(>decessors. 



In our time we think of (he process of development in nature as one 

 going continuously for^^ard through the combination of the opposite 

 processes of evolution and dissolution. The tendency of our thought 

 has been in the direction of banishing cataclysms to the theoloirical 

 limbo and viewing nature as a sleepless plodder, endowed with in- 

 finite patience, waiting thi'ough long ages for results. T do not con- 

 test the truth of the principle of continuity on which this view is 

 based. Rut it fails to make known to us the whole truth. The 

 building of a ship from the time that her keel is laid until she is making 



