THE AGE OF SCIENCE 235 



tions in old theories that have long ceased to be useful. 

 They no doubt served a useful purpose in their day, but 

 gradually one of the most pernicious ideas ever held by 

 man took shape, and I am willing to characterize it as one 

 of the most serious obstacles to the advance of knowledge. 

 I refer to the idea that it is a sign of inferiority to work 

 with the hands. This idea came early and stayed late. 

 In fact, there are still on the earth a few who hold it. 

 How did this prove an obstacle to the advance of knowl- 

 edge? By preventing those who were best equipped from 

 advancing knowledge. The learned men of the earth for 

 a long period were thinkers, philosophers. They were not 

 workers in nature's workshop. They tried to solve the great 

 problems of nature by thinking about them. They did 

 not experiment. That is to say, they did not go directly 

 to nature and put questions to her. They speculated. 

 They elaborated theories. During this period knowledge 

 was not advanced rapidly. It could not be. For the only 

 way along which advances could be made was closed. 



Slowly the lesson was learned that the only way by which 

 we can gain knowledge of nature's secrets is by taking her 

 into our confidence. Instead of contemplating in a study, 

 we must have contact with the things of nature either out- 

 of-doors or in the laboratory. Manual labor is necessary. 

 Without it we may as well give up hope of acquiring knowl- 

 edge of the truth. When this important fact was forced 

 upon the attention of men, scientific progress began and 

 continued with increasing rapidity. At present the old 

 pernicious idea that a man who does any kind of work 

 with his hands is by virtue of that fact an inferior being 

 that idea is no longer generally held. But we have not 

 got entirely rid of it. In a recent address I find this refer- 

 ence to the subject: "However the case may have been 

 with what forty years ago was called the education of a 

 gentleman, it seems to me to be one of the services of the 

 scientific laboratory that it has taught to that part of man- 

 kind which has leisure and opportunities that manual skill 



