KVOLltTTON OK TH K SCIKNTIFTC INV KSTI(4 AT( >R. 'J-**.) 



of knowlcdov taken at that time, that instead of chiiiiiiiii;' credit for 

 briiiii'inii" to liii'ht <j,reat-'truths before unknown he made a hibored 

 attempt to show that after ;vll there was nothing- really new in his 

 system, which he claihied to date from Pythagoras and Philolans. 

 In this connection it is curious that he makes no mention of Aris- 

 tarchns, who, I think, will be regarded by conservative historians 

 as his only demonstrated ])redecessor. To the hold of the older ideas 

 upon his mind we nnist attribute the fact that in constructing his 

 system he took great })ains to make as little change as possible in 

 ancient conceptions. 



Luther, the greatest thought stirrer of them all, practically of the 

 same generation with Copernicus, Leonardo, and Cohnnbus, does not 

 come in as a scientific investigator, l)ut as the great loosener of chains 

 which had so fettered the intellect of men that they chired not tliink 

 otherwise than as the authorities thought. 



Almost coeval wHth the advent of these intellects was the inveiition 

 of printing with moval)le type. Gutenberg was born during the first 

 decade of the century, and his associates and others credited with 

 the invention not many years afterwards. If we accept the principle 

 on which I am l)asing my argument, that we should assign the first 

 place to the birth of those psychic agencies which started men on new 

 lines of thought, then sui-ely was the fifteenth the wonderful century. 



Let us not forget that, in assigning the actors then born to thi'ir 

 places, we ai'c not narrating history, but studying a special phase 

 of evolution. It matters not for us that no university invited Leo- 

 nar(h) to its halls, and that his science was valued by his conteni[)o- 

 raries only as an adjunct to the art of engineering. The great fact 

 still is that he was the first of mankind to pro})oun(l laws of motion. 

 It is not for anytliing in Lutlier's doctrines that he finds a ])]ace in 

 our scheme. No matter for us whether they were sound oi- not. 

 A^^lat he did toward the evolution of the scientific investigator was 

 to show l)y his example that a man might (|uestion the best-estab- 

 lished and most veneral)le authority and still live, still preserve his 

 intellectual integrity, still conunand a hearing from nations and 

 their rulers. It matters not for us whether Columbus ever knew 

 that he had discovered a new continent. His work was to teach 

 that neither hydra, chimei-a, nor abyss — neither divine injunction nor 

 infernal machination — was in the way of men \'isiting e\'ery ])art of 

 the globe, and that the problem of confiuering the world re(luced itself 

 to one of sails and rigging, hull and <()m|)ass. The better pai't of 

 Copernicus was to direct man to a view point wjience he should see 

 that the heavens were of like matter with the earth. All this done, 

 the acorn was |)lanted from which the oak of oui" civilization should 

 spring. 'I'hc mad (|uest for gold which followed the discoxci'v of 

 Columbus, the (juest ionings \\liich absoi'bcd the attention of I he 



