NEW knowledge is NEW power. 23 



which scientific discovery has impressed upon us. 

 By means of discoveries we have acquired new 

 powers ; by those of electricity we have acquired 

 the ability of conversing with each other at unlimited 

 distances, and by means of those in optics we are 

 enabled to analyse the composition, and perceive 

 some of the physical changes of the most distant 

 heavenly bodies. As our ignorance is probably 

 much greater than our knowledge, more inventions 

 also, and extensions of human power, must ulti- 

 mately result from discovering new qualities of 

 bodies, than by applying to useful purposes their 

 already known properties. 



Experience in science has already shown that it is 

 by means of invention based upon new discoveries 

 that the greatest utilities are obtained, rather than 

 by the exercise of invention upon knowledge acquired 

 long ago. The information obtained by research in 

 former times has been largely exhausted for the 

 purposes of invention by modern inventors, and what 

 we very greatly require now is new knowledge. 

 Experience in science also leads us to believe that 

 the extent of possible discovery is as boundless as 

 Nature, and that an immense amount of new know- 

 ledge may yet be discovered. Every discoverer of 

 repute could supply a copious list of investigations 

 yet to be made. 



An infinite number of questions in pure science 

 remain to be decided by means of research. Is 

 Electricity decomposible like radiant heat or light ? 



