28 ON THE RELATION OF 



even were there no higher wants of an ideal character to 

 be satisfied ; and not merely in the development of the 

 physical sciences, and their technical application, but 

 also in the progress of legal, political, and moral sciences, 

 and of the accessory historical and philological studies. 

 No nation which would be independent and influential 

 can afford to be left behind in the race. Nor has this 

 escaped the notice of the cultivated peoples of Europe. 

 Never before was so large a part of the public resources 

 devoted to universities, schools, and scientific institutions. 

 We in Heidelberg have this year occasion to congratu- 

 late ourselves on another rich endowment granted by our 

 government and our parliament. 



I was speaking, at the beginning of my address, of the 

 increasing division of labour and the improved organisa- 

 tion among scientific workers. In fact, men of science 

 form, as it were, an organised army, labouring on behalf 

 of the whole nation, and generally under its direction 

 and at its expense, to augment the stock of such know- 

 ledge as may serve to promote industrial enterprise, to 

 increase wealth, to adorn life, to improve political and 

 social relations, and to further the moral development of 

 individual citizens. After the immediate practical re- 

 sults of their work we forbear to inquire ; that we leave 

 to the uninstructed. We are convinced that whatever 

 contributes to the knowledge of the forces of nature or 

 the powers of the human mind is worth cherishing, and 

 may, in its own due time, bear practical fruit, very often 

 where we should least have expected it. Who, when 

 Gralvani touched the muscles of a frog with different 

 metals, and noticed their contraction, could have dreamt 

 that eighty years afterwards, in virtue of the self-same 

 process, whose earliest manifestations attracted his at- 

 tention in his anatomical researches, all Europe would 

 be traversed with wires, flashing intelligence from Madrid 



