Culture and Women's Clubs 109 



mediate physical use, who call for financial or as they 

 say practical return for every effort, may open their 

 eyes, widen their vision, reflect just a little, if that be 

 possible ; and realize, once for all, that even our modern 

 science, which has so transformed the world, is, to your 

 self -named " practical " man, in its very nature, essence, 

 and life, as impractical as poetry. Why, even science 

 dreams! Science has visions; science sets out to make 

 visions come true ; for what ? For ITS OWN HIGH SAKE ! 

 For invention ? No ! For money ? No ; for knowledge ! 

 Do you suppose Franklin tried to invent lightning rods, 

 or Faraday dynamos or wireless stations? Not for a 

 moment! These men were studying electricity and 

 physics, appealing to intelligent people ; pitied, no doubt, 

 by the smug practical man of the time. Science finds the 

 truth; invention puts it to use; but without science, no 

 invention ; without poor, obscure, toiling science, no gaso- 

 line; without gasoline, no engine; without engine, no 

 Ford! 



Science is star-eyed; she treads her own high way of 

 investigation and research, knowledge her ambition, and 

 truth her high reward; telephones, electric lights, con- 

 trol of human ills these but the incidents of her pro- 

 gress, the by-products of her patient, ceaseless toil. 

 Science counts them not. 



Take another illustration. Who is the most distin- 

 guished woman on earth to-day? Madame Curie. Who 

 is Madame Curie? Professor of physics and laboratory 

 director at the Sorbonne, lecturer to the school for girls 

 at Sevres, the town whence you buy your finest china. In 

 1903 Madame Curie shared with her husband, only less 



