534 



NATURE 



[December 22, 1921 



appropriate platform of all those offered by the 

 British Association from which a message of ex- 

 hortation may be given. There are now 130 

 corresponding societies of the Association, with 

 a total membership of about 52,000, and their 

 representatives should every year go back not 

 only strong with zeal for new knowledge, but also 

 as ministers filled with the sense of duty to inspire 

 others to trust in it. In mechanics work is not 

 considered to be done until the point of applica- 

 tion of the force is moved ; and knowledge, like 

 energy, is of no practical value unless it is 

 dynamic. The scientific society which shuts itself 

 up in a house where a favoured few can contem- 

 plate its intellectual riches is no better than a 

 group of misers in its relations to the community 

 around it. The time has come for a crusade 

 which will plant the flag of scientific truth in a 

 bold position in every province of the modern 

 world. If you believe in the cause of disciplined 

 reason you will respond to the call and help to 

 lift civilised man out of the morass in which he 

 is now struggling, and set him on sound ground 

 with his face toward the light. 



It is not by discoveries alone, and the records 

 of them in volumes rarely consulted, that science 

 is advanced, but by the diffusion of knowledge 

 and the direction of men's minds and actions 

 through it. In these democratic days no one 

 accepts as a working social ideal Aristotle's view 

 of a small and highly cultivated aristocracy pur- 

 suing the arts and sciences in secluded groves 

 and maintained by manual workers excluded from 

 citizenship. Artisans to-day have quite as much 

 leisure as members of professional classes, and 

 science can assist in encouraging the worthy em- 

 ployment of it. This end can be attained by co- 

 operative action between local scientific societies 

 and representative organisations of labour. There 

 should be close association and a common fellow- 

 ship, and no suggestion of superior philosophers 

 descending from the. clouds to dispense gifts to 

 plebeian assemblies. It should also always be 

 remembered that a cause must have a soul as w'ell 

 as a body. The function of a mission-hall is dif- 

 ferent from that of a cinema-house or other place 

 of entertainment, and manifestations of the spirit 

 of science are more uplifting than the most in- 

 structive descriptive lectures. 



Science needs champions and advocates in 

 addition to actual makers of new knowledge and 

 exponents of it. There are now more workers 

 in scientific fields than at any other time, yet rela- 

 tively less is done to create enthusiasm for their 

 labour and regard for its results than was accom- 

 plished fifty years ago. Every social or religious 

 movement passes through like stages, from that 

 of fervent belief to formal ritual. In science 

 specialisation is essential for progress, but the 

 price which has to be paid for it is loss of contact 

 with the general body of knowledge. Concentra- 

 tion upon any particular subject tends to make 

 people indifferent to the aims and work of others ; 

 for, while high magnifying powers enable minute 

 details to be discerned, the field of vision is cor- 

 NO. 2721, VOL. 108] 



respondingly narrowed, and the relation of the 

 structure as a whole to pulsating life around it 

 is unperceived. 



As successful research is now necessarily limited 

 for the most part to complex ideas and intricate 

 details requiring special knowledge to comprehend 

 them, very special aptitude is required to present 

 it in such a way as will awaken the interest of 

 people familiar only with the vocabulary of every- 

 day life. In the scientific world the way to dis- 

 tinction is discovery, and not exposition, and 

 rarely are the two faculties combined. Most 

 investigators are so closely absorbed in their re- 

 searches that they are indifferent as to whether 

 people in general know anything of the results 

 or not. But where one person will exercise his 

 intelligence to understand the description of a 

 new natural fact or principle a thousand are ready 

 to admire the high purpose of a scientific quest 

 and reverence the disinterested service rendered 

 by it to humanity. The record of discovery or 

 description of progress is, therefore, only one 

 function of a local scientific society ; beyond this 

 is the duty of using the light of science to reveal 

 the dangers of ignorance in high as Avell as in 

 low places. Though in most societies there is 

 only a small nucleus of working members, the 

 others are capable of being interested in results 

 achieved, and a few may be so stimulated by them 

 as to become just and worthy knights of science, 

 ready to remove any dragons which stand in the 

 way of human progress, and continually uphold- 

 ing the virtues of their mistress. 



Every local scientific society should be a train- 

 ing ground for these Sir Galahads, and an out- 

 post of the empire of knowledge. The community 

 should look to it for protection from dangers 

 within and without the settlement, and for assist- 

 ance in pressing further forward into the sur- 

 rounding woods of obscurity. At present it is ; 

 unusual for this civic responsibility to be accepted ; 

 by a scientific society, with the result that local 

 movements are undertaken without the guidance 

 necessary to make them successful. A local 

 scientific society should be the natural body for 

 the civic authority to consult before any action is 

 taken in which scientific knowledge will be of ser- 

 vice. It should be to the city or county in which 

 it is situated what the Royal Society is to the ' 

 State, and not a thing apart from public life and 

 affairs. 



When wisdom is justified of her children, and 

 local scientific societies are no longer esoteric 

 circles, but effective groups of enlightened citizens 

 of all classes, they will provide the touchstone by 

 which fact is distinguished from assertion and 

 promise from performance. As the sun draws 

 into our system all substantial bodies which come 

 within its sphere of influence, while the pressure 

 of sunlight drives away the fine dust which would 

 tend to obscure one body from another, so a 

 local scientific society possesses the power of 

 attracting within itself all people of weight in the 

 region around it and of dispersing the mist and 

 fog which commonly prevail in the social atmo- 



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