66 BIOLOGY AND THE STATE II 



money which (to use another metaphor) is no less the 

 sinews of the war of science against ignorance than of 

 other less glorious campaigns. Surely men engaged 

 in the scientific profession may advocate the claim of 

 science to maintenance and needful pecuniary provi- 

 sion ! It seems to me that we should, if necessary, 

 stifle, rather than be controlled by, that pride which 

 tempts us to paint the scientific career as one far 

 above and independent of pecuniary considerations ; 

 whereas all the while we know that knowledge is lan- 

 guishing, that able men are drawn off" from scientific 

 research into other careers, that important discoveries 

 are approached and their final grasp relinquished, that 

 great men depart and leave no disciples or successors, 

 simply for want of that which is largely given in other 

 countries, of that which is most abundant in this 

 country, and is so lavishly expended on armies and 

 navies, on the development of commercial resources, 

 on a hundred injurious or meaningless charities — viz. 

 money. 



I have no doubt that I have the sympathy of all 

 my hearers in wishing for more extensive provision 

 in this country for the prosecution of scientific research, 

 and especially of biological research. I need hardly 

 remind this audience of the almost romantic history 

 of some of the great discoveries which have been made 

 in reference to the nature and history of living things, 

 during the past century. The microscope, which was 

 a drawing-room toy a hundred years ago, has, in the 

 hands of devoted and gifted students of nature, been 

 the means of giving us knowledge which, on the one 



