Proper motives in research. 5 



Sir Humphrey Davy isolated sodium and magne- 

 sium, which has led to the establishment at Patri- 

 croft near Manchester, of the manufactures of those 

 metals. By the abstract researches of Hofmann 

 and others upon Coal-tar, many new compounds 

 were discovered, and the extremely profitable 

 manufacture of the splendid coal-tar dyes was 

 originated. 



Scientific discovery is the most valuable in its 

 ultimate practical results when it is pursued from a 

 love of truth as the ruling motive, and any attempt 

 to make it more directly and quickly remunerative 

 by trying to direct it to immediately practical 

 objects, decreases the importance of its results, 

 diminishes the spirit of inquiry, and sooner or later 

 reduces it to the character of invention. The 

 greatest practical realities of this age had their origin 

 in a search after important truths entirely irrespec- 

 tive of what utilities they might lead to. 



I do not intend by these remarks to imply that 

 any new trades or improvements in manufactures 

 have been or can be effected without the labours of 

 inventors and practical men, but that there should 

 be a more judicious division of labour : one man to 

 discover new truths, another to put them into the 

 form of practical inventions, and the business man 

 to work them ; because it is proved by experience, 

 that in nearly all cases these different kinds of labour 

 require men of widely different habits of mind, and 



