SCIENCE AS A MEANS OF HUMAN CULTURE. 673 



of equal intelligence, training, and experience in their conclusions 

 will generally differ from one another by a constant or nearly con- 

 stant quantity, and each will differ from the truth. This differ- 

 ence from the truth in each individual is his personal equation or 

 habitual error. Many investigators now correct their results for 

 this constant error, but nowhere in the realm of knowledge are 

 the processes for making this correction so perfectly worked out 

 as in the physical sciences, geodesy and astronomy. A party of 

 astronomers was once about to be sent on service to the southern 

 hemisphere. Their personal equations were carefully ascertained, 

 when it occurred to one of them that in the hemisphere to which 

 they were going the apparent celestial movements would be re- 

 versed, and that their errors ought to be reinvestigated for stars 

 of apparent reverse motion. This was done, when the differences 

 were found to be oppositely as large as before. There was, how- 

 ever, one individual in the party to whom it mattered not which 

 way the stars moved, for he had no personal equation in either 

 case. 



It is the duty of the scientist to sift facts from theory, and 

 he who is thus engaged constantly in separating what is really 

 known from belief or mere theory gains intellectual strength 

 and an appreciation for true honesty. The ability to weigh evi- 

 dence and distinguish between it and the flights of the imagina- 

 tion is the natural foundation of greatness in all scientific work ; 

 and in proportion to his ability to rise into this lofty realm is a 

 man's opinion and work entitled to authority. 



The natural and physical sciences demand our attention on 

 account of their technical applications in the arts, and the ad- 

 mirable preparation which they give for all practical work when 

 concrete things are the objective study. The colleges that teach 

 pure mathematics, languages, history, and philosophy, without 

 their application to the affairs of mankind, do not get beyond 

 the threshold of education. They merely place in their students' 

 hands tools for work without training them in their uses, or to 

 appreciate the variety and beauty of their finished product. It 

 is certainly a high and responsible calling to instruct young men 

 from text-books in what has long been accepted as truth, but the 

 higher functions of a true education rise into the sphere of ap- 

 plication and original investigation; and I believe the few in- 

 stitutions that strive to this end are doing more for the real 

 intellectual advancement of mankind than all the traditional 

 schools on record. Without the application of the instruments 

 of knowledge, the pretense and self -stultification born in the 

 class room often result in the dangerous and pernicious idea that 

 it is better to be brilliant than to be sound, better to rely on 

 opinion and faith than on experiment and knowledge. Too 



VOI. XLT. 50 



