THE APPLICATIONS 3F SCIENCE 159 



external world with which our practical and everyday 

 life is an unceasing struggle. Forewarned is forearmed, 

 and we stand a better chance of success in the contest 

 if we know precisely how our adversary may be expected 

 to behave. Knowledge is power and our knowledge of 

 the external world enables us in some measure to control 

 it. So much is obvious ; nobody to-day will be found to 

 deny that science and it must be remembered that we 

 always use that word to denote the abstract study 

 might be of great service in practical life. Nor indeed 

 will anybody deny that it has been of great service. We 

 have all heard how the invention of the dynamo on which 

 is based every industrial use of electricity, without which 

 modern civilization would be impossible or the discovery 

 of the true nature of ferments the basis of modern 

 medicine was the direct outcome of the purest and most 

 disinterested intellectual inquiries. But although this 

 is granted universally, men of science are still heard to 

 complain with ever-increasing vehemence that they are 

 not allotted their due share of influence in the control of 

 industry and of the State, and that science is always 

 suffering from material starvation. It is clear, therefore, 

 that in spite of the superficial agreement on the value of 

 science, there is still an underlying difference of opinion 

 which merits our attention. 



The difference is not surprising, for candour compels 

 us to confess that these admitted facts, on which the 

 claims of science to practical value are often based, are 

 not really an adequate basis for those claims. The fact 

 that science might produce valuable results and actually 

 has produced some, is no more justification for our 

 devoting any great part of our energies to its develop- 

 ment than the fact that I picked up half a crown in the 

 street yesterday and might pick up another would be a 

 justification for my abandoning sober work to search for 

 buried treasure. Moreover, the very people who claim, 



