,596 HENRY A. EOWLAND 



its intercourse, is reduced to a level. What was formerly a grand and 

 magnificent landscape, with mountains ascending above the clouds, and 

 depths whose gloom we cannot now appreciate, has become serene and 

 peaceful. The depths have been filled, and the heights levelled, and 

 the wavy harvests and smoky factories cover the landscape. 



As far as the average man is concerned, the change is for the better. 

 The average life of man is far pleasanter, and his mental condition 

 better, than before. But we miss the vigor imparted by the mountains, 

 "We are tired of mediocrity, the curse of our country; we are tired of 

 seeing our artists reduced to hirelings, and imploring Congress to protect 

 them against foreign competition; we are tired of seeing our country- 

 men take their science from abroad, and boast that they here convert 

 it into wealth; we are tired of seeing our professors degrading their 

 chairs by the pursuit of applied science instead of pure science, or sit- 

 ting inactive while the whole world is open to investigation; lingering 

 by the wayside while the problem of the universe remains unsolved. We 

 wish for something higher and nobler in this country of mediocrity, for a 

 mountain to relieve the landscape of its monotony. We are surrounded 

 with mysteries, and have been created with minds to enjoy and reason 

 to aid in the unfolding of such mysteries. Nature calls to us to study 

 her, and our better feelings urge us in the same direction. 



For generations there have been some few students of science who 

 have esteemed the study of nature the most noble of pursuits. Some 

 have been wealthy, and some poor; but they have all had one thing in 

 common, the love of nature and its laws. To these few men the world 

 owes all the progress due to applied science, and yet very few ever 

 received any payment in this world for their labors. 



Faraday, the great discoverer of the principle on which all machines 

 for electric lighting, electric railways, and the transmission of power, 

 must rest, died a poor man, although others and the whole world have 

 been enriched by his discoveries; and such must be the fate of the 

 followers in his footsteps for some time to come. 



But there will be those in the future who will study nature from 

 pure love, and for them higher prizes than any yet obtained are waiting. 

 We have but yet commenced our pursuit of science, and stand upon the 

 threshold wondering what there is within. We explain the motion of 

 the planets by the law of gravitation; but who will explain how two 

 bodies, millions of miles apart, tend to go toward each other with a 

 certain force? We now weigh and measure electricity and electric cur- 

 rents with as much ease as ordinary matter, yet have we made any 



