470 CHEMICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION 



pure science that is, the correct observation of fact and the 

 establishment of " law " stands ever in practical importance 

 before applied science, which is invention. But this is a hard 

 saying, and there are still too many people who believe that 

 the true and only business of science is to find out useful 

 things. Even Francis Bacon, in his famous fable of the " New 

 Atlantis," seems to have taken this view, for in the Order or 

 Society which he imagined under the name of " Solomon's 

 House," he supposes only three members of the community set 

 apart as " Interpreters of Nature," all the rest being occupied 

 in drawing out of their discoveries things of use to mankind. 



It is, however, only necessary to consider any application of 

 science to useful purposes to perceive that such application be- 

 came possible only at the end of a long series of observations, 

 experiments, and arguments which occupied the labours of 

 several generations of men. Each step forward is usually the 

 result of some apparently trivial scrap of new knowledge ac- 

 quired without regard to the question whether it is likely ever 

 to be turned to any practical purpose. 



Real progress comes from the pursuit of knowledge for its 

 own sake. 



