XC PROCEEDINGS. 



whole range of human industry. That is the kind of science in which 

 the whole intelligent world believes in without dissent. It is the 

 ancient Egyptian cult of utility as opposed to the ancient Grecian cult 

 of truth for truth's sake. 



I would say a word, not against the Egyptian philosophy which 

 with the world I approve ; but in favor of the Grecian ideal, not sim- 

 ply on account of the higher order of character and of pleasure created 

 by it, but on account of its ultimate utility in making the develop- 

 ment of the industrial sciences possible. 



The constitution of things is so very unlike our elementary con- 

 ceptions of the world even after we are some years in investigating it, 

 that the most pious theologian as well as the neglected street Arab, 

 without a single exception, becomes a sceptic with respect to his infan- 

 tile philosophy. The fairios have taken wing and disappeared for 

 ever, and Santa Glaus with his marvelous powers over space arid time 

 and the universal laws of physics which chain puny men and boys to 

 the ground and the dull prose of fact, drops out of the gorgeous cloud 

 of poetry and shrivels up at last to a benevolent old man also chained 

 to the ground. 



Now, many people continue to learn more after the infantile stage 

 has been passed ; but much of what they learned had been discovered 

 and pointed out to the world by a few others. And when all that 

 has been discovered is known, we shall feel that the world is wider 

 and fuller than ever we thought it before. We cannot resist the con- 

 viction that there is a great deal more to be known than we thought 

 when we knew less. And the new things are so unlike what we were 

 expecting from what we had previously learned, that we were looking 

 for something else when we tripped upon the new. 



Now the man who is roaming through the universe searching for 

 truth wherever it may appear, just because he enjoys such an exercise, 

 will some day fall upon some new thing, it may be gold, coal, or a 

 cocoa-nut, which those digging in the potato field for the hundredth 

 time can never get, no matter how they may long for it. Truths 

 picked up in the simple search for truth, arranged and recorded so 

 that they are always henceforward accessible when their complements 

 are found, may for years, even centuries be unproductive. The dis- 

 covery of just one point more may complete the solution of an old 

 industrial problem, or reveal a new power over nature. 



