2 WHAT IS SCIENCE? 



academic and unpractical dreamers, ignorant of all the 

 real needs of the world. If the two forms of science were 

 really inconsistent with each other, both sides could 

 present a strong case. Few would deny that, in some 

 sense, intellectual interests are higher and more noble 

 than material interests; for it is in the possession of 

 intellectual interests that we differ from the brutes. 

 Indeed, it may be urged that the only reason why men 

 should care for their material interests, or why they should 

 care to obtain anything but mere freedom from the pains 

 of cold and starvation, is that they may have the leisure 

 and the freedom from care necessary to cultivate their 

 minds. All but the most base must have respect, if not 

 sympathy, for those who prefer to live laborious days in 

 the pursuit of pure learning rather than to devote their 

 energies to the attainment of personal wealth and ease. 

 But to press this point of view is to misrepresent the 

 issue. More than the interests of the student himself 

 are involved; and though the benefits of pure and 

 abstract science may be higher than those of practical 

 and useful science, they are much less widely distributed. 

 It is only a small minority of mankind who can hope to 

 share the former; few have the mental equipment 

 necessary for the full enjoyment of the quest and dis- 

 covery of pure knowledge ; and of these few not all are 

 able to undertake the long and strenuous training that 

 is a necessary preliminary to full enjoyment. On the 

 other hand the benefits of practical science might be 

 shared even if they are not shared in our present 

 society by almost every one ; the vast majority do not 

 possess the freedom from material cares necessary for 

 the full development of their higher interests ; and if 

 practical science can so facilitate the satisfaction of 

 material needs as greatly to increase the number who 

 have that freedom, its value, even if judged by the least 

 material and the most academic standards, may be in no 



