THE AGE OF SCIENCE 243 



have condemned the work as being utterly useless, and I 

 may add that some did condemn it. There was no hope, 

 no thought entertained by us that anything practical would 

 come of it. But lo! one day it appeared that one of the 

 substances discovered in the course of the investigation is 

 the sweetest thing on earth ; and then it was shown that it 

 can be taken into the system without injury; and finally, 

 that it can be manufactured at such a price as to furnish 

 sweetness at a cheaper rate than it is furnished by the 

 sugar cane or the beet. And soon a great demand for it 

 was created, and to-day it is manufactured in surprising 

 quantities and used extensively in all corners of the globe. 

 Thousands have found employment in the factories in which 

 it is now made, and it appears that in some European 

 countries the new substance has become the sweetening 

 agent of the poor, it being sold in solution by the drop. 



It is unnecessary here to discuss the question naturally 

 suggested by the facts just spoken of, whether the discovery 

 of the sweet substance has benefited the human race. It 

 would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to answer this 

 question. But whatever the answer, it is clear, from what 

 has been said that the discovery was of importance from the 

 practical point of view, and there was nothing originally in 

 the work to suggest the possibility of a practical result in the 

 sense in which the word practical is commonly employed. 



This is the lesson that we learn over and over again as 

 we study the great industries. Rarely have they been the 

 results of work undertaken with the object of attaining 

 the practical. Look at the beginnings of electricity. A 

 piece of amber when rubbed attracts bits of pith. A frog's 

 leg twitches after death when touched in certain ways with 

 metals. That was all. Are such things worth investigat- 

 ing? No doubt the practical man said: "No; stop trifling: 

 do something worth doing." And if he had been per- 

 mitted to have his way, all the wonderful results that 

 depend upon the applications of electricity would have 

 been impossible. In every line, much study, much work, 



