A PLEA FOR PUEE SCIENCE 595 



debt of gratitude we owe to the great and unselfish workers who have 

 given it to us; and, like the rain of heaven, this pure science has fallen 

 upon our country, and made it great and rich and strong. 



To a civilized nation of the present day, the applications of science 

 are a necessity, and our country has hitherto succeeded in this line 

 only for the reason that there are certain countries in the world where 

 pure science has been and is cultivated, and where the study of nature 

 is considered a noble pursuit; but such countries are rare, and those who 

 wish to pursue pure science in our own country must be prepared to 

 face public opinion in a manner which requires much moral courage. 

 They must be prepared to be looked down upon by every successful 

 inventor whose shallow mind imagines that the only pursuit of man- 

 kind is wealth, and that he who obtains most has best succeeded in this 

 world. Everybody can comprehend a million of money; but how few 

 can comprehend any advance in scientific theory, especially in its more 

 abstruse portions! And this, I believe, is one of the causes of the small 

 number of persons who have ever devoted themselves to work of the 

 higher order in any human pursuit. Man is a gregarious animal, and 

 depends very much, for his happiness, on the sympathy of those around 

 him; and it is rare to find one with the courage to pursue his own ideas 

 in spite of his surroundings. In times past, men were more isolated 

 than at present, and each came in contact with a fewer number of 

 people. Hence that time constitutes the period when the great sculp- 

 tures, paintings and poems were produced. Each man's mind was com- 

 paratively free to follow its own ideals, and the results were the great 

 and unique works of the ancient masters. To-day the railroad and the 

 telegraph, the books and newspapers, have united each individual man 

 with the rest of the world; instead of his mind being an individual, a 

 thing apart by itself, and unique, it has become so influenced by the 

 outer world, and so dependent upon it, that it has lost its originality to 

 a great extent. The man who in times past would naturally have been 

 in the lowest depths of poverty, mentally and physically, to-day meas- 

 ures tape behind a counter, and with lordly air advises the naturally 

 born genius how he may best bring his outward appearance down to a 

 level with his own. A new idea he never had, but he can at least cover 

 his mental nakedness with ideas imbibed from others. So the genius 

 of the past soon perceives that his higher ideas are too high to be 

 appreciated by the world; his mind is clipped down to the standard 

 form; every natural offshoot upwards is repressed, until the man is no 

 higher than his fellows. Hence the world, through the abundance of 



