238 DISCOVERY en. 



produced a century ago, spent his early life in a hovel. 

 Fourier, Ampere, Arago and Fresnel were other great 

 Frenchmen who gave glory of the highest kind to their 

 native land, as did their contemporaries, Faraday in 

 England, and Gauss in Germany. t Nearly every one 

 of these men was poor and was descended from the 

 " common people." 



This generation of great men was not students of the 

 past so much as pioneers of the future. They only used 

 traditional machinery when it served their purpose, and 

 were constantly devising new methods of attacking 

 problems relating both to the heavens and the earth. 

 In mathematical works which excite wonder and admira- 

 tion they discussed the motions of the masses forming 

 our planetary system ; they developed the mathematical 

 theory of heat transmission and of light waves ; they 

 led the way into the vast field of electrical industries in 

 which tens of millions of pounds are now invested ; they 

 made it possible for the engineers of our day to do what 

 has been done. 



Such men have always been the ones to open up new fields 

 of industry, and new lines of human thought. Their work 

 must precede the work of the engineer and the inventor. And 

 when any nation has reached such a stage in its existence that 

 scientific discovery is put in the background, and the entire 

 current of work is expended in engineering and business enter- 

 prise, that nation is on the way to the civilisation of China. For 

 the new problems before us are greater than they ever were before. 

 If the pioneers do not appear, all advance will come to an end. 

 Prof. F. E. Nipher. 



National well-being can be secured only when the 

 close relation between it and scientific progress is 

 understood. Discoveries which lead directly to develop- 

 ments of industry and manufacture may almost be left 

 to take care of themselves, and the search for them is 



