686 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
applications which strike the public eye, and excite public 
admiration, are the outgrowth of long antecedent labors 
begun, continued, and ended, under the operation of a 
purely intellectual stimulus. " Few," says Pasteur, " seem 
to comprehend the real origin of the marvels of industry and 
the wealth of nations. I need no other proof of this than 
the frequent employment in lectures, speeches, and official 
language of the erroneous expression, 'applied science.' 
A statesman of the greatest talent stated some time ago 
that in our day the reign of theoretic science had rightly 
yielded place to that of applied science. Nothing, I 
venture to say, could be more dangerous, even to practical 
life, than the consequences which might flow from these 
words. They show the imperious necessity of a reform in 
our higher education. There exists no category of sciences 
to which the name of 'applied science" could be given. 
We have science and the applications of science which are 
united as tree and fruit." 
A final reflection is here suggested. We have among 
us a small cohort of social regenerators men of high 
thoughts and aspirations who would place the operations 
of the scientific mind under the control of a hierarchy 
which should dictate to the man of science the course that 
he ought to pursue. How this hierarchy is to get its 
wisdom they do not explain. They decry and denounce 
scientific theories; they scorn all reference to ether, and 
atpms, and molecules, as subjects lying far apart from the 
world's needs; and yet such ultra-sensible conceptions are 
often the spur to the greatest discoveries. The source, in 
fact, from which the true natural philosopher derives 
inspiration and unifying power is essentially ideal. Fara- 
day lived in this ideal world. Nearly half a century ago, 
when he first obtained a spark from the magnet, an Oxford 
don expressed regret that such a discovery should have been 
made, as it placed a new and facile implement in the hands 
of the incendiary. To regret, a Comtist hierarchy would 
have probably added repression, sending Faraday back to 
his bookbinder's bench as a more dignified and practical 
sphere of action than peddling with a magnet. And yet it 
is Faraday's spark which now shines upon our coasts, and 
promises to illuminate our streets, halls, quays, squares, 
warehouses, and, perhaps at no distant day, our homes, 
THE END. 
