ELECTKICAL CONFERENCE AT PHILADELPHIA 637 



man seeks to make a servant of our knowledge. He seeks to increase 

 the power of our bodies and to make the bonds by which the mind is 

 united to it less irksome. It is he that increases the wealth of the world, 

 and thus allows those so disposed to cultivate their tastes and to elevate 

 themselves above the savages. The progress of the world depends upon 

 his inventions. 



Let not, then, the devotee of pure science despise practical science, 

 nor the inventor look upon the scientific discoverer as a mere visionary 

 person. They are both necessary to the world's progress and they are 

 necessary to each other. 



To-day our country, by its liberal patent laws, encourages applied 

 science. We point to our inventions with pride, and our machinery in 

 many of the arts is not surpassed. But in the cultivation of the pure 

 sciences we are but children in the eyes of the world. Our country has 

 now attained wealth, and this wealth should partly go in this direction. 

 We have attained an honorable position in applied science, and now let 

 us give back to the world what we have received in the shape of pure 

 science. Thus shall we no longer be dependent, but shall earn our own 

 science as well as inventions. 



Let physical laboratories arise; let men of genius be placed at their 

 head, and, best of all, let them be encouraged to pursue their work by 

 the sympathy of those around them. Let the professors be given a 

 liberal salary, so that men of talent may be contented. Let technical 

 schools also be founded, and let them train men to carry forward the 

 great work of applied science. 



Let them not be machines to grind out graduates by the thousand, 

 irrespective of quality. But let each one be trained in theoretical 

 science, leaving most of his practical science to be learned afterward, 

 avoiding, however, overtraining. Life is too short for one man to know 

 everything, but it is not too short to know more than is taught in most 

 of our technical schools. It is not telegraph operators, but electrical 

 engineers that the future demands. 



Such a day has almost come to our country and we welcome its ap- 

 proach. 



Then, and not till then, should our country be proud and point with 

 satisfaction to her discoveries in science, pure and applied, while she 

 has knowledge enough to stand in humiliation before that great undis- 

 covered ocean of truth on whose shores Newton thought he had but 

 played. 



