FIRST PRINCIPLES 9 



of these men entered the University as medical students. 

 But some found physics or chemistry, others botany or 

 zoology, others physiology, anatomy, or pathology, of such 

 surpassing interest that they abandoned all intention of 

 practising medicine in order that they might give their lives 

 to science. The growth of the engineering school is lead- 

 ing to a like result. And one cannot but regard the gain 

 to pure science as far outweighing the loss to applied 

 science. Pure science cannot hope for numerous recruits. 

 Its prizes are few, its disappointments many, even for those 

 who show a special aptitude for its pursuit. The advice 

 which we always give to a lad who desires to devote him- 

 self to science is, "Prepare yourself for a profession in 

 which your favourite science plays an important part, and 

 trust that if you have the capacity for the science you will 

 secure the opportunity of pursuing it. ' ' Many a Cambridge 

 graduate is now grateful to his teachers for urging him to 

 persevere in obtaining a medical degree at a time when 

 he wished to throw up every other prospect for the sake 

 of one or other of the sciences upon which medicine rests. 

 After taking the degree, he has returned to science to find 

 that after all it would not provide him with a livelihood, or 

 that his capacity for research was less than he had assumed, 

 and therefore he has again given himself heartily to the pro- 

 fession from which for a time he thought himself seduced. 



The aim of science is to know Nature, and the student 

 can obtain an intimate knowledge of his science only by 

 watching Nature's every manifestation. It is impossible to 

 know her through report. It might be supposed that a man 

 could become a learned chemist without entering a labora- 

 tory, but it is not so. There is in the writings of those 

 who compile text-books, without putting the statements 

 which they copy from other authors to the test of experi- 

 ence, a want of accuracy and proportion which give a false 

 ring to the work. Everyone who has travelled knows that 

 the thing as he saw it never exactly corresponded to the 



