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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



doing ill the present, because in the past 

 such work has often yielded results un- 

 dreamed of at its inception. The his- 

 tory of science urges us to the continu- 

 ation of theoretical and nonutilitarian 

 investigation, however much we may be 

 tempted to press the more obviously 

 utilitarian lines of study. Keseareh 

 along lines immediately useful will take 

 care of itself, for we are all convinced 

 that it pays big dividends. But where 

 the immediate return is not in evidence, 

 it requires a certain faith in the out- 

 come which can be held only by those 

 who know what has happened again and 

 again in the history of science. 



It is, therefore, important that teach- 

 ers and preachers of science emphasize 

 this phase of scientific progress. Scien- 

 tific men have not made this item of 

 their creed sufficiently clear to those 

 who are not scientists. As they have 

 opportunity, they should preach to the 

 public as well as to one another the need 

 for investigation unhampered by utili- 

 tarian demands. The oneness of science 

 should be emphasized to the end that 

 the public may understand how science 

 advances, and that the public like the 

 scientist, may live in the faith that 

 knowledge of natural phenomena is al- 

 ways worth more than it costs. 



There is not so mueli danger that we 

 shall fail to appreciate research in ap- 

 plied science — how to grow thirty bush- 

 els of wheat where ten grew before— 

 how to produce a new antitoxin. But 

 there is danger that we fail to see the 

 other side, that the men capable of 

 doing creative work as investigators be 

 unable to find a livelihood, and that in 

 the present, as in the past, the advance 

 of science may depend too largely upon 

 the chance meeting of brains and 

 means. To show that this danger is 

 real, not imaginary, we may say that in 

 zoological science there are in the 

 United States today few positions in 

 which a young man of promise may 

 earn a living in pure science. He may 

 teach, with small chance for investiga- 



tion; he may find limited opportunities 

 in the applied zoology of government 

 or state service or of commercial enter- 

 prise ; but for the man who gives prom- 

 ise of being competent to do the pio- 

 neering demanded by pure science, 

 there is almost no opportunity for a 

 living. A like condition obtains in 

 many lines of science other than zool- 

 ogy. This failure to provide oppor- 

 tunity for the man of promise is a 

 shame upon our civilization, for we are 

 drying up the springs which feed the 

 fountain. 



Conspicuous ability as an investi- 

 gator is rare, and every effort should be 

 made to discover the man giving prom- 

 ise of such attainment. When found, 

 he siiould have his chance, should be 

 given clearance papers for a voyage 

 into the unknown. ]\Ien who have this 

 ability, who, standing upon the ground 

 already mapped, can see the distant 

 mountains, and whose imagination pic- 

 tures the path across the intervening 

 valley, are like the explorers of a virgin 

 continent ; they "yearn beyond the sky- 

 line wliere the strange roads go down." 

 And our race has come out of bar- 

 barism because the desire for knowledge 

 has impelled men of this adventurous 

 spirit, in spite of discouragement and 

 misunderstanding, persecution and 

 death, to search after the facts of sci- 

 ence in what is for man the last "dark 

 continent" — the realm of nature. 



"We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, 



in the man-stifled town ; 

 We yearned beyond the sky-line where 



the strange roads go down. 

 Came the Whisper, came the Vision, came 



the Power with the Need, 

 Till the Soul that is not man's soul was 



lent us to lead." 



This stanza from Kipling's "Song of 

 the English" is chosen as a text in an 

 analogy between the "nature searclier" 

 and the explorer. Incidentally, it shows 

 that science has not destroyed the op- 

 portunity for imagination. For, al- 

 though "the old order changeth," there 



