The Gifts of Science 121 



of the surface of the earth and to spread the knowledge 

 of these things among men tell him so much, and such 

 a visitor would certainly experience great surprise. Tell 

 him that here is something new: that study here is all 

 apart from literature, from the philosophies and human- 

 ities, and his surprise will heighten still the more. 



Tell him that this is only a single instance: that in 

 every State, in a hundred cities, the same thing is doing, 

 has been done: and his surprise will be deepened into 

 wonder as he learns that the people of this country and 

 of the world yearly are spending millions of dollars at 

 the behest of what men call science, in a demand never 

 satisfied, ever increasing; insatiate as time, unsatisfied 

 as human ambition itself. 



If our visitor be an intelligent man, as he must be to 

 appreciate all that we show him, his sense of astonish- 

 ment will forthwith provoke the inquiry : ' * What means 

 such vast expenditure? What is your expectancy in 

 such investment? And what returns are they, which 

 those who thus spend their treasure have received or 

 hope to receive to justify an outlay so lavish, persistent, 

 and yet seemingly for ends so far remote from humanity 

 and its purposes, its enjoyments, hopes and fears?" He 

 will say: "Here is no vast library, stored with the 

 learning of the ages; here are no panoramic halls in 

 which the art of busy centuries may charm the appre- 

 ciative soul. Here is only an appliance for the study of 

 the lower creation, even the lowest; apparatus for the 

 investigation of plants and these the most insignificant; 

 what profits, then, such study and what advantage has 

 science that it should receive consideration so universal, 



