474 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



a nation to bear in mind that those practical applications 

 which strike the public eye, and excite public admiration, 

 are the outgrowth of long antecedent labors begun, con- 

 tinued, and ended, under the operation of a purely intel- 

 lectual stimulus. ''Few," says Pasteur, "seem to compre- 

 hend the real origin of the marvels of industry and the 

 wealth of nations. I need no other proof of this than the 

 frequent employment in lectures, speeches and official lan- 

 guage of the erroneous expression, 'applied science.' A 

 statesman of the greatest talent stated some time ago that 

 in our day the reign of theoretic science had rightly yielded 

 place to that of applied science. Nothing, I venture to 

 say, could be more dangerous, even to practical life, than 

 the consequences which might flow from these words. 

 They show the imperious necessity of a reform in our 

 higher education. There exists no category of sciences to 

 which the name of 'applied science' could be given. We 

 have science and the applications of science which are 

 united as tree and fruit." 



A final reflection is here suggested. We have among 

 us a small cohort of social regenerators — men of high 

 thoughts and aspirations — who would place the operations 

 of the scientific mind under the control of a hierarchy 

 which should dictate to the man of science the course 

 that he ought to pursue. How this hierarchy is to get 

 its wisdom they do not explain. They decry and de- 

 nounce scientific theories; they scorn all reference to 

 ether, and atoms, and molecules, as subjects lying far 

 apart from the world's needs; and yet such ultra-sensi- 

 ble conceptions are often the spur to the greatest discov- 

 eries. The source, in fact, from which the true natural 

 philosopher derives inspiration and unifying power is es- 



