Fan, 23, 1873] 
have an immense circulation to be remunerative. Is not 
this one among many signs that the untrammelled Ameri- 
cans are rapidly outstripping us in the love for and the 
spread of scientific knowledge? It is certainly a note- 
worthy phenomenon which we wish could be witnessed 
nearer home. The editorial preface to the series con- 
cludes thus :—“ If in the ulterior object of his (Professor 
Tyndall’s) labours, the awakening of a spirit of scientific 
inquiry among our young thinkers, and the fostering of 
this tendency by liberal endowments from our wealthier 
citizens, his success shall be ultimately apparent, our 
whole country will have reason to thank the eminent 
Englishman.” The following are a few passages from 
his concluding lecture :— 
“Ttis never to be forgotten that not one of those great 
investigators, from Aristotle down to Stokes and Kirch- 
hoff, had any practical end in view, according to the ordi- 
nary definition of the word ‘practical.’ They did not 
propose to themselves money as an end, and knowledge 
as a means of obtainingit. For the most part, they nobly 
reversed this process, made knowledge of their end, and 
such money as they possessed the means of obtaining it. 
We may see to-day the issues of their work in a thousand 
practical forms, and this may be thought sufficient to 
justify it, if not ennoble their efforts. But they did not 
work for such issues ; their reward was of a totally diffe- 
rent kind. In what way different? We love clothes, we 
love food, we love fine equipages, we love money, and 
any man who can point to these as the results of his 
efforts in life justifies these efforts before all the world. 
In America and England more especially he is a practi- 
calman. But I would appeal confidently to this assem- 
bly whether such things exhaust the demands of human 
nature? Given clothes, given food, given carriages, given 
money—is there no pleasure beyond what these can cover 
which the possessor of them would still covet? The very 
presence here for six inclement nights of this audience, em- 
bodying, I am told, to a great extent, the mental force and 
refinement of this city, is an answer to my question. [| 
need not tell such an assembly that there are joys of the 
intellect as well as joys of the body, or that these pleasures 
of the spirit constituted the reward of our great investi- 
gators. Led on by the whisperings of natural truth, 
through pain and self-denial, they often pursued their 
work. With the ruling passion strong in death, some of 
them, when no longer able to hold a pen, dictated to their 
friends the results of their labours, and then rested from 
them for ever. . . . That scientific discovery may put not 
only dollars into the pockets of individuals, but millions 
into the exchequers of nations, the history of science 
amply proves ; but the hope of its doing so is not the 
motive power of the investigator. It never can be his 
motive power. 
“When analysed, what are industrial America and 
industrial England? If you can tolerate freedom of 
speech on my part, I will answer this question by an 
illustration. Strip a strong arm, and regard the knotted 
muscles when the hand is clinched and the arm bent. Is 
this exhibition of energy the work of the muscle alone? 
By no means. The muscle is the channel of an influence, 
without which it would be as powerless as a lump of 
plastic dough, It is the delicate unseen nerve that un- 
locks the power of the muscle. And without those fila- 
ments of genius which have been shot like nerves through 
the body of society by the original discoverers, industrial 
America and industrial England would, I fear, be very 
much in the condition of that plastic dough. At the pre- 
sent time there is a cry in England for technical educa- 
tion, and it is the expression of a true national want ; 
but there is no outcry for original investigation. Still 
without this, as surely as the stream dwindles when the 
spring dries, so surely will their technical education lose 
all force of growth, all power of reproduction. Our great 
investigators have given us sufficient work for a time ; 
NATURE 
225 
but if their spirit die out, we shall find ourselves eventu-. 
ally in the condition of those Chinese mentioned by De 
Tocqueville, who, having forgotten the scientific origin of 
what they did, were at length compelled to copy without 
variation the inventions of an ancestry who, wiser than 
themselves, had drawn their inspiration direct from 
Nature. 
“To keep society as regards science in healthy play, 
three classes of workers are necessary: Firstly, the in- 
vestigator of natural truth, whose vocation it is to pursue 
that truth, and extend the field of discovery for the truth’s 
own sake, and without any reference to practical ends. 
Secondly, the teacher of natural truth, whose vocation it 
is to give public diffusion to the knowledge already won by 
the discoverer. Thirdly, the applier of natural truth, whose 
vocation it is to make scientific knowledge available for the 
needs, comforts, and luxuries of life. These three classes 
ought to coexist, and interact upon each other. Now, 
the popular notion of science, both in this country and in 
England, often relates, not to science strictly so called, 
but to the applications of science. Such applications, 
especially on this continent, are so astounding—they 
spread themselves so largely and umbrageously before 
the public eye—as to shut out from view those workers who 
are engaged in the profounder business of discovery.” 
After quoting De Tocqueville on the supposed un- 
favourable influence which republicanism has on the 
advance of science, Prof. Tyndall says :— 
“Tt rests with you to prove whether these things are 
necessarily so, whether the highest scientific genius 
cannot find in the midst of you a tranquil home. I 
should be loth to gainsay so keen an observer and so 
profound a critical writer, but, since my arrival in this 
country, I have been unable to see anything in the con- 
stitution of society to prevent any student with the root 
of the matterin him from bestowing the most steadfast 
devotion on pure science. If great scientific results are 
not achieved in America, it is not to the small agitations 
of society that I should be disposed to ascribe the defect, 
but to the fact that men among you who possess the 
genius for scientific inquiry are laden with duties of ad- 
ministration or tuition so heavy as to be utterly incom- 
patible with the continuous or tranquil meditation which 
original investigation demands. I do not think this state 
of things likely to last. I have seen in America willing- 
ness on the part of individuals to devote their fortunes in 
the matter of education to the service of the common- 
wealth, for which I cannot find a parallel elsewhere. 
“This willingness of private men to devote fortunes to 
public purposes requires but wise direction to enable you 
to render null and void the prediction of De Tocqueville, 
Your most difficult problem will be not to build institu- 
tions, but to make men; not to form the body, but to 
find the spiritual embers which shall kindle within that 
body a living soul. You have scientific genius among 
you; not sown broadcast, believe me, but still scat- 
tered here and there, Take all unnecessary impediments 
out of its way. You have asked me to give these 
lectures, and I cannot turn them to better account than 
by asking you in turn to remember that the lecturer is 
usually the distributor of intellectual wealth amassed by 
better men. It is not as lecturérs, but as discoverers, that 
you ought to employ your highest men. Keep your sym- 
pathetic eye upon the originator of knowledge. Giye 
him the freedom necessary for his researches, not over- 
loading him either with the duties of tuition or of ad- 
ministration, not demanding from him so-called practical 
results—above all things, avoiding that question which 
ignorance so often addresses to genius; ‘What is the 
use of your work?’ Let him make truth his object, how- 
ever impracticable for the time being, that truth may 
appear. If you cast your bread thus upon the waters, 
then be assured it will return to you, though it may be 
after many days,” 
