686 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



applications which strike the public eye,, and excite public 

 admiration, are the outgrowth of loiig 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 7 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 

 lie 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 

 atoms, 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, hulls, quays, squares, 

 warehouses, and, perhaps at no distant day, our homes. 



THE END. 



O 



XI DIVERSITY 



