244 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



the very highest practical importance" (Nature, 

 Sept. 2, 1909). 



We see, then, that undue insistence on the 

 practical utility of science is not historically 

 justified, and that hasty criticism of lines of 

 scientific work as purely theoretical is likely to 

 be very unjust. What practical result may flow 

 from an apparently abstruse and detached inves- 

 tigation no one is wise enough to predict, and 

 inventions usually rest on a patiently established 

 theoretical basis. Minerva-like birth of dis- 

 coveries is rare. As Prof. Stephenson puts it: 

 "Discoveries which prove all-important in secon- 

 dary results do not burst forth full grown; they 

 are, so to say, the crown of a structure raised 

 painfully and noiselessly by men indifferent to 

 this world's affairs, caring little for fame and 

 even less for wealth. Facts are gathered, prin- 

 ciples are discovered, each falling into its own 

 place until at last the brilliant crown shines out, 

 and the world thinks it sees a miracle." 



The ultra-practical man's impatient "What's 

 the use of it?" may be occasionally a sound 

 corrective, since science, as well as art, requires 

 to be socialized. But it often reveals an intel- 

 lectual shortsightedness. As Sir Lyon Playfair 

 once said: "Truer relations of science to industry 

 are implied in Greek mythology. Vulcan, the 

 god of industry, wooed science, in the form of 



