DETACHMENT OF MEN OF SCIENCE 107 



which scientific method plays in the government 

 of the State. 



As the result of our collective work and in 

 spite of many individual failures, scientific discovery 

 advanced its slow conquest of knowledge. We 

 worked in friendly co-operation with our fellow 

 men of science in other countries and rendered 

 unto the Teutonic Caesar the things that were 

 Caesar's and some that were not. We preached 

 now and then a sermon on aniline dyes to deaf 

 ears ; but on the whole we were content with the 

 somewhat inefficient government and adminis- 

 tration which we enjoyed. We jested lightly on 

 the subject of our foreign consuls and their general 

 detachment from commercial affairs and we rather 

 deplored the misfortune that men trained in the 

 classics and the art of litigation were set in authority 

 over us. We gave no heed to the fiction beloved 

 of statesmen and other managers of men that 

 their high work is beyond the powers of mere 

 thinkers and men of science, and by our general 

 remoteness and aversion from affairs we appeared 

 to accept this naive judgment by default. So we 

 continued and to the State " grew stranger being 

 ...rapt in secret studies." Then the war cloud 

 appeared on the horizon and whilst we smiled at the 

 absurdity of such an anachronism as an European 

 conflict, it burst overwhelmingly upon us. As the 

 best of the young men of all other classes flocked 

 to the recruiting stations so the best of our youth 



