ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF MATTER RUTHERFORD 185 



reasonable competence for those who have shown a capacity for 

 orijO;inal investigation. Not least, peace throughout the civilized 

 world is as important for rapid scientific development as for general 

 commercial prosperity. Indeed, science is truly international, and 

 for progress in many directions the cooperation of nations is as 

 essential as the cooperation of individuals. Science, no less than 

 industry, desires a stability not yet achieved in world conditions. 



There is an error far too prevalent to-day that science progresses 

 by the demolition of former well-established theories. Such is very 

 rarely the case. For example, it is often stated that Einstein's gen- 

 eral theory of relativity has overthrown the work of Newton on 

 gravitation. No statement could be farther from the truth. Their 

 works, in fact, are hardly comparable, for they deal with different 

 fields of thought. So far as the work of Einstein is relevant to that 

 of Newton, it is simply a generalization and broadening of its basis ; 

 in fact, a typical case of mathematical and physical development. 

 In general, a great principle is not discarded but so modified that it 

 rests on a broader and more stable basis. 



It is clear that the splendid period o>f scientific activity which we 

 have reviewed to-night owes much of its success and intellectual ap- 

 peal to the labors of those great men in the past, who wisely laid the 

 sure foundations on which the scientific worker builds to-day, or to 

 (juote from the words inscribed in the dome of the National Gallery, 

 " The works of those who have stood the test of ages have a claim to 

 that respect and veneration to which no modern can pretend." 



