THE UNITY OF SCIENCE. 33 



results, such as the use of antiseptics, have been 

 reached by very circuitous paths. It did not seem a 

 very promiseful beginning which Pasteur found in 

 the study of tartrate crystals, and yet what a begin- 

 ning it was ! 



It is long since Bacon replied to the objection of 

 the practical mood which we have just noted. We 

 may recall his vindication of investigations which 

 are light-giving (lucifera) against those which are of 

 direct practical utility (frudifera) ; and the deliver- 

 ance ^' Just as the vision of light itself is something 

 more excellent and beautiful than its manifold uses, 

 so without doubt the contemplation of things as they 

 are, without superstition or imposture, without error 

 or confusion, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole 

 harvest of inventions." 



But there are many other dissentient voices. The 

 humanitarians mutter " cruelty," " inhuman curios- 

 ity," ^^ barbarous inquisitiveness," ^^ triviality." The 

 scholars say with a smile ^' we would rather know the 

 thoughts of Plato and Aristotle than pour over the 

 entrails of an antediluvian frog," — " a Kindergar- 

 ten study at the best is your I^atural Science." The 

 poets and artists laugh and say, " Grubbers among 

 dust and ashes, besmirching the wings which might 

 lift you as eagles," " a botany which teaches that 

 there is no such thing as a flower," ^^ a biology which 

 has become necrology," '^ a chemistry which has 

 flooded the world with aniline dyes," " a physiology 

 which has made a debased — not kailyard, but mid- 

 den-heap — literature possible," and so on. 



These and a hundred other criticisms reach the 



ear, and though a retort may readily be made to each, 



the feeling remains that there is some justice in most 



of them, that scientific industry is not always 3uf- 



3 



