34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is motion, and yet do we know what it is that moves ? Ordinary mat- 

 ter is a common substance, and yet who shall fathom the mystery of 

 its internal constitution ? 



There is room for all in the work, and the race has but commenced. 

 The problems are not to be solved in a moment, but need the best work 

 of the best minds, for an indefinite time. 



Shall our country be contented to stand by, while other countries 

 lead in the race ? Shall we always grovel in the dust, and pick up the 

 crumbs which fall from the rich man's table, considering ourselves 

 richer than he because we have more crumbs, while we forget that he 

 has the cake, which is the source of all crumbs ? Shall we be swine, 

 to whom the corn and husks are of more value than the pearls ? If I 

 read aright the signs of the times, I think we shall not always be con- 

 tented with our inferior position. From looking down we have almost 

 become blind, but may recover. In a new country, the necessities of 

 life must be attended to first. The curse of Adam is upon us all, and 

 we must earn our bread. 



But it is the mission of applied science to render this easier for the 

 whole world. There is a story which I once read, which will illus- 

 trate the true position of applied science in the world. A boy, more 

 fond of reading than of work, was employed, in the early days of the 

 steam-engine, to turn the valve at every stroke. Necessity was the 

 mother of invention in his case : his reading was disturbed by his 

 work, and he soon discovered that he might become free from his 

 work by so tying the valve to some movable portion of the engine as 

 to make it move its own valve. So I consider that the true pursuit of 

 mankind is intellectual. The scientific study of nature, in all its 

 branches, of mathematics, of mankind in its past and present, the pur- 

 suit of art, and the cultivation of all that is great and noble in the 

 world — these are the highest occupations of mankind. Commerce, the 

 applications of science, the accumulation of wealth, are necessities 

 which are a curse to those with high ideals, but a blessing to that por- 

 tion of the world which has neither the ability nor the taste for higher 

 pursuits. 



As the applications of science multiply, living becomes easier, the 

 wealth necessary for the purchase of apparatus can better be obtained, 

 and the pursuit of other things besides the necessities of life becomes 

 possible. 



But the moral qualities must also be cultivated in proportion to the 

 wealth of the country, before much can be done in pure science. The 

 successful sculptor or painter naturally attains to wealth through the 

 legitimate work of his profession. The novelist, the poet, the mu- 

 sician, all have wealth before them as the end of a successful career. 

 But the scientist and the mathematician have no such incentive to 

 work : they must earn their living by other pursuits, usually teaching, 

 and only devote their surplus time to the true pursuit of their science. 



