RELATION OF SCIENCE TO HUMAN LIFE—SEDGWICK. 679 
that natural phenomena are in themselves, and without reference to 
immediate utility, proper subjects of man’s inquiry, and that all 
progress must be based on their thorough and accurate investigation. 
- The genesis of a new idea is so difficult, and the amount of work 
necessary for its complete elucidation and development so vast and 
detailed, that many eminent men, taking only a short period of time 
and not realizing the minute steps by which the advance of knowl- 
edge takes place, have been led to doubt the value of scientific investi- 
gation in the higher realms of pure knowledge, even to the extent 
of speaking of the bankruptcy of science. Others, again, perceiving 
the apparent aimlessness of many investigations and undervaluing 
the motive which urges them on, have come to look with a certain 
contempt upon the man of pure science and his slow and plodding 
progress. What is the good of all this work at unimportant details? 
What do you get out of it, and what pleasure do you find in it? they 
ask, and when they are told that the humble worker usually gets 
nothing out of his work except the pleasure of doing it, and that 
his motive is nothing more elevated than the satisfaction of his 
curiosity, there does appear to be, it must be admitted, some justifi- 
eation for the contemptuous indifference with which the poor re- 
searcher is regarded by a considerable section of the population, as 
is shown by the almost entire absence of support of pure scientific 
research on the part of the Government. With the exception of an 
annual grant of £4,000 a year given to the Royal Society, I think T 
um correct in stating that the Government affords hardly any sup- 
port to science save to such as is concerned with teaching or with 
some practical problem; and when one remembers the composition 
of governments and the manner in which, and the reasons for which, 
they are chosen, one can not unreservedly blame them for this atti- 
tude. The best method of fostering research is a difficult problem, . 
and I can well understand that a modern democratic government, 
depending as it does upon popular support, with its attendant popu- 
lar mandates, should shrink from dealing with it. To do so would’ 
bring them no popularity and no votes, and too often they are not 
really aware of its immense importance to human progress, and when 
they are they have great difficulties to face. 
For it is impossible to organize research on a commercial basis. 
“All attempts,” says Professor Nichols, of Cornell, “at a machine- 
made science are doomed to failure. No autocratic organization is 
favorable to the development of the scientific spirit. No institution 
after the commercial models of to-day is likely to be generously 
fertile. You can contract for a bridge according to specifications. 
No one, however, can draw up specifications for a scientific discovery. 
No one can contract to deliver it on a specific day for a specified 
price, and no employee can be hired to produce it for wages received.” 
45745°—sm 1909——44 
