THE AGE OF SCIENCE 237 



The fact is, I am inclined to think that there never was a 

 more fruitful period, in chemistry at least, than the last 

 quarter of the eighteenth century. Farther on, I shall 

 have occasion to speak of a few of the great chemical dis- 

 coveries that were made during that period. No greater 

 discoveries have been made since. In astronomy, Newton's 

 great work was done more than two centuries ago. An 

 age that can boast of the discovery of the law of gravitation 

 may fairly lay claim to the title, "the age of science." 

 Many and many a great discovery in science preceded the 

 present age, but from what I have already said, you will 

 see that the reason for calling this age in which we live the 

 scientific age is found in the fact that scientific work is 

 much more extensively carried on at present than at any 

 time in the past, and, further, the world is beginning to 

 reap the rewards of this work. So striking are some of 

 these rewards that they appeal to all. The world is daz- 

 zled by them, and is to a large extent unable to distinguish 

 between the scientific work which has made these rewards 

 possible and the rewards themselves. The idea is preva- 

 lent that scientific work is carried on in order that rewards 

 in the shape of practical results may be reached. I have 

 no desire to bring my fellow-workers in science into disre- 

 pute. It would therefore perhaps be best for me to stop 

 here; but, if you will bear with me, I will try to make it 

 clear to you that one may be engaged in scientific work all 

 his life, never thinking of what the world calls practical 

 results, that he may in fact not achieve a single result that 

 can be called practical, and yet not waste his time ; and 

 that one may hold such a worker up to admiration without 

 running much risk of being taken for a fool. This will be 

 my object in what I still have to say. 



While I have thus far referred to science in the broadest 

 sense, meaning the science of nature, let me now turn more 

 especially to the science to which it has been my lot to 

 devote my life, and let me endeavor to show by a few 

 examples the relations that exist between work that appears 



