536 TECHNOLOGY 



that we, its followers, have been unwittingly tracing out another 

 of the great circles of truth. However this may be, we have now 

 to consider the conceptions which enter into the most practical 

 of all the sciences, and the one which, of all others, was long sup- 

 posed to be purely experimental and to require no mental founda- 

 tions of any kind. 



A conception is a thing so subtle, so illusory, that it seems cap- 

 able of receiving the work of many minds and many generations 

 before it can be said to emerge with any not to speak of absolute 

 clearness from the background of thought. Our first efforts to 

 give it a shape bear about the same relation to the complete thought 

 as the first rough tracing might do to a finished statue. Take, for 

 example, the conception of the development of the individual, 

 which is so marked a feature of all modern educational theories. 

 How slowly it has taken shape in the thought of the world! How 

 far are we still from acting in accordance with it! How far from 

 realizing that power and not knowledge should be the true aim in 

 education ! 



Towards the better understanding of technology comparatively 

 little has been done, and that for the very natural reason that the 

 practical has constantly turned aside the attention. The Techno- 

 logue (to use a word not yet adopted into English) has been de- 

 scribed as an intermediary between the savant and the mechanic, 

 translating, as it were, the discoveries of the former into the uses 

 of the latter. Although we may see reason later to modify this 

 view, still, in a certain sense, it is quite true, and the truth of it 

 accounts for the fact that the exponents of practical science have 

 hitherto had little time or inclination to travel with any speed to- 

 wards the realm of the abstract. Yet much good work has been 

 accomplished. Merz has investigated the scientific spirit with a 

 view to discover its effect on the progress of thought in Europe; 

 Reuleaux has spoken of the evolution of science with especial re- 

 ference to technology; Anderson, in his Forrest Lecture, has chosen 

 as his subject the relation of science to engineering, and a host of 

 others have discussed before learned societies special aspects of 

 technology chiefly relating to the history of its development during 

 the present century. It is little wonder that such splendid achieve- 

 ments as this history chronicles should so have dazzled our eyes 

 that we have not attempted to inquire too closely into their source 

 To-day, however, we shall try to regard these achievements only 

 as the effects of a cause which we seek to find. We shall restrict 

 our admiration of the constructive ability displayed in a Brooklyn 

 Bridge or a Saint-Gothard tunnel; of the inventive genius shown 

 in a Morse system of telegraphy, or a Bell telephone; of the force 

 of insight and determination which overcame the practical diffi- 



