A PLEA FOR PURE SCIENCE. 35 



And frequently, by the small salary which they receive, by the lack 

 of instrumental and literary facilities, by the mental atmosphere in 

 which they exist, and, most of all, by their low ideals of life, they are 

 led to devote their surplus time to applied science or to other means 

 of increasing their fortune. How shall we, then, honor the few, the 

 very few, who, in spite of all difficulties, have kept their eyes fixed on 

 the goal, and have steadily worked for pure science, giving to the 

 world a most precious donation, which has borne fruit in our greater 

 knowledge of the universe and in the applications to our physical life 

 which have enriched thousands and benefited each one of us ? There 

 are also those who have every facility for the pursuit of science, who 

 have an ample salary and every appliance for work, yet who devote 

 themselves to commercial work, to testifying in courts of law, and to 

 any other work to increase their present large income. Such men would 

 be respectable if they gave up the name of professor, and took that of 

 consulting chemists or physicists. And such men are needed in the 

 community. But for a man to occupy the professor's chair in a promi- 

 nent college, and, by his energy and ability in the commercial applica- 

 tions of his science, stand before the local community in a prominent 

 manner, and become the newspaper exponent of his science, is a dis- 

 grace both to him and his college. It is the death-blow to science in 

 that region. Call him by his proper name, and he becomes at once a 

 useful member of the community. Put in his place a man who shall 

 by precept and example cultivate his science, and how different is the 

 result ! Young men, looking forward into the world for something 

 to do, see before them this high and noble life, and they see that there 

 is something more honorable than the accumulation of wealth. They 

 are thus led to devote their lives to similar pursuits, and they honor 

 the professor who has drawn them to something higher than they 

 might otherwise have aspired to reach. 



I do not wish to be misunderstood in this matter. It is no disgrace 

 to make money by an invention, or otherwise, or to do commercial 

 scientific work under some circumstances. But let pure science be the 

 aim of those in the chairs of professors, and so prominently the aim 

 that there can be no mistake. If our aim in life is wealth, let us hon- 

 estly engage in commercial pursuits, and compete with others for its 

 possession. But if we choose a life which we consider higher, let us 

 live up to it, taking wealth or poverty as it may chance to come to us, 

 but letting neither turn us aside from our pursuit. 



The work of teaching may absorb the energies of many ; and, in- 

 deed, this is the excuse given by most for not doing any scientific 

 work. But there is an old saying, that where there is a will there is a 

 way. Few professors do as much teaching or lecturing as the German 

 professors, who are also noted for their elaborate papers in the scien- 

 tific journals. I myself have been burdened down with work, and 

 know what it is ; and yet I here assert that all can find time for scien- 



