234 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



provide for to-morrow ; the morrow of the race, as well as 

 the morrow of the individual ; and he who looks furthest 

 ahead is best able to cope with Nature, and to conquer 

 her. 



The investigation of the unknown is to gather experience 

 from those who have lived before us, and to secure know- 

 ledge for ourselves and for those who will succeed us. I 

 see, however, that I am insensibly taking a utilitarian 

 view; I by no means wish to exclude it, but the chief 

 purpose of research must be the acquisition of knowledge, 

 and the second its utilisation. 



I will try to explain why this is so, and here you must 

 forgive me if I cite well-known and oft- quo ted instances. 



If attempts were made to discover only useful know- 

 ledge (and by useful I accept the vulgar definition of 

 profitable, i.e. knowledge which can be directly trans- 

 muted into its money equivalent) these attempts would, 

 in many, if not in most cases, fail of their object. I do 

 not say that once a principle has been proved, and a 

 practical application is to be made of it, that the working 

 out of the details is not necessary. But that is best done 

 by the practical man, be he the parson, the doctor, the 

 engineer, the technical electrician, or the chemist, and 

 best of all on a fairly large scale. If, however, the prac- 

 tical end be always kept in view, the chances are that 

 there will be no advance in principles. Indeed, what we 

 investigators wish to be able to do, and what in many 

 cases we can do, although perhaps very imperfectly, is to 

 prophesy, to foretell what a given combination of circum- 

 stances will produce. The desire is founded on a belief 

 in the uniformity of Nature ; on the conviction that what 

 has been will again be, should the original conditions be 

 reproduced. By studying the consequences of varying 

 the conditions our knowledge is extended; indeed it is 

 sometimes possible to go so far as to predict what will 



