SCIENCE IN THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 61 



Tlio middle of the eigliteeuth century is illustrated bj a host of great 

 names iu science — English, French, German, and Italian, — especially in 

 the tields of chemistry, geology, and biology; but this dee))eiiing and 

 broadening of natural knosv ledge produced next to no immediate prac- 

 tical benefits. Even if, at this time, Francis Bacon could have returned 

 to the scene of his greatness and of his littleness, he must have re- 

 garded the pliilosophiti world which praised and disregarded his i)re- 

 cepts with great disfavor. If ghosts are consistent he would have 

 said, "These people are all wasting their time, just as Gilbert and Kep- 

 ler and Galileo and my worthy physician Harve^' did in my day. 

 Where are the fruits of the restoration of science which I promised? 

 This accumulation of bare knowledge is all very well, but vui bono ? 

 Not one of these people is doing what I told him specially to do, and 

 seeking that secret of the cause of forms which will enable men to deal 

 at will with matter, and super-induce new natures upon the old founda 

 tions." 



LATER PRACTICAL EFFECT. 



But, a little later, that growth of knowledge beyond imaginable utili- 

 tarian ends, which is the condition precedent of its practical utility, 

 began to produce some effect upon practical life ; and the operation of 

 that part of nature we call human upon the rest began to create, not 

 •' new natures," iu Bacon's sense, but a new Nature, the existence of 

 which is dependent upon men's efforts, which is subservient to their 

 wants, and which would disappear if man's shaping and guiding hand 

 were withdrawn. Every mechanical artifice, every chemically pure 

 substance employed in manufacture, every abnormally fertile> race of 

 plants, or rapidly growing and fattening breed of animals, is a part of 

 the new Nature created by science. Without it the most densely pop- 

 ulated regions of modern Europe and America must retain their primi- 

 tive, sparsely inhabited, agricultural or pastoral condition : it is the 

 foundation of our wealth and the condition of our safety from submer- 

 gence by another flood of barbarous hordes ; it is the bond which unites 

 into a solid political whole, regions larger than any empire of antiquity ; 

 it secures us from the recurrence of the pestilences and famines of 

 former times; it is the source of endless comforts and conveniences, 

 which are not mere luxuries, but conduce to physical ami moral well- 

 being. During the last fifty years, this new birth of time, this new 

 Nature begotten bj' science upon fact, has pressed itself daily and 

 hourly upon our attention, and has worked miracles which have modi- 

 tied the whole fashion of our lives. 



What wonder, then, if these astonishing fruits of the tree of knowl- 

 edge are too often regarded by both friends and enemies as the be-all 

 and end-all of science'? What wonder if some eulogize, and others 

 revile, the new ])hilosophy for its utilitarian ends and its merely ma- 

 terial triuuq)hs? 



