Aor ee 
NATURE 
377 
' THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1873 
THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH 
: VI. 
7 MONG the difficulties whiclt are likely to impede the 
ready realisation of the object to which atten- 
tion has been drawn, there remains one which will 
always be most keenly felt by those who have 
devoted the most thought to the question. Beneath 
the word “Science” there lurks a distressing am- 
biguity, which, though it may not force itself upon the 
attention of the devoted students of any particular branch, 
is always arising when the general claims of scientific 
study come on for discussion. For our present purpose 
it is particularly important to attach that meaning to the 
word which, while best justified by usage, is also most 
calculated to conciliate good will from all quarters. 
It will hardly be denied that the name primarily 
belongs to those sciences called by way of distinction 
“natural,” in the name of which this journal is con- 
ducted, and which therefore it is needless to enumerate 
here ; and that the name is thence transferred, by reason 
of analogies of varying degrees of strength, to those other 
branches of knowledge which either in their logical 
methods or positive results approximate to the standard of 
the physical sciences. Although it would be presumptuous 
to attempt to lay down with exactness the line which 
must somewhere exist between scientific and unscientific 
knowledge, it must yet be always necessary to treat with 
much suspicion the claims of mere erudition and of social 
theorising to be admitted to the honoured name. The 
old-fashioned reputation of the grammarian or the divine, 
_ and the modern popularity of practical reformers, are 
neither of them grounds on which to found a title to 
national endowment. The unprofitable studies for which 
the Universities were once famous have for centuries been 
abundantly rewarded, and the applause of a crowded 
congress is ever ready to acknowledge the merits of a 
novel speculation in Sociology. It is not unnatural that 
those who know by hard experience what Science really is 
should jealously uphold the dignity of their pursuits, and 
point with pride to the,innumerable advantages which 
mankind within the last century has reaped from their 
labours; but, on the other hand, the warning is not un- 
needed at the present day that the field of the physical 
sciences is not equal in extent to that which all scientific 
knowledge can comprehend, and that the appeal to utility 
may be turned into a fallacious argument. Yet further, it 
may be urged that those among the sciences which most 
attract the public attention at the hands of an accom- 
plished experimentalist, and of which the direct practical 
applications are manifest to all, are least in immediate 
want of support from national endowments, It is for the 
languishing departments of Science, which have not been 
popularised, and of which the results have not yet been 
turned to commercial value, that the advantages of en- 
dowment are most required. As soon as ever the main 
principle of these articles is publicly recognised, the more 
advanced and most useful are certain to obtain sufficient 
care, but it is for the more backward and the least profit- 
able that the need of help is most urgent. 
No, 202—Vot, vi, 
ae 
It may be reasonably expected that the Universities, as 
their traditions become modified under the influence 
of the public demands, will be disposed to accept the 
duty of endowing scientific research under the limitations 
above indicated. They can have no antecedent prejudice 
in favour of those branches of science which either 
attract the most spectators, or the greatest number of 
self-interested students. They have always refrained 
with anxiety both from bidding for popularity, and trom 
preparing their pupils for the technical business of life. 
Their historic position also, and the peculiar responsibili- 
ties which they cannot but feel, will cause them to inter- 
pret Science ina liberal fashion. For these reasons it is 
confidently hoped that, while they cannot afford to dis- 
regard the paramount importance of the physical sciences, 
they will maintain the position to which other sciences 
more closely connected with their present curriculum have 
of late years grown. The former, on account of their 
rigorous methods, the positive character of their results, 
and the abundance of their possible applications must 
always hold the first place, and present a standard for the 
rest ; but these others also, in so far as they are really 
matters of scientific treatment, are in their proper sub- 
ordination equally fields for original research and proper 
objects for endowments. The example of the German 
Universities has familiarised our own seats of learning with 
the notion that the study of languages, of antiquities, and 
of history, are all capable of being pursued in the genuine 
scientific spirit, and may lead directly to the most import- 
ant positive results. Abundant evidence has been given 
within the last few years to show that the primitive con- 
dition of mankind and the origin of civilisation are 
matters which may be revealed by Science. The meta- 
physical explanations of the last century have given way 
before the well-ordered facts and regular uniformities 
which modern inquirers have been able to discover and 
arrange. The products of the human mind, and the 
course of human action, when displayed in their simplest 
and most universal forms, have been proved to be proper 
subject-matter for Science, no less than the law of man’s 
physical organism or the processes of external nature. 
The most advanced thinkers have no hesitation in saying 
that the origin of natural religion is capable of being dis- 
closed by the same methods and with equal certainty as 
the origin of species, and that philology yields an instru- 
ment which can unfold the secrets of an unknown past as 
surely as the spectroscope reveals the composition of un- 
known worlds. Just as modern psychology has found it 
necessary to borrow a large portion of its materials from 
the kindred science of comparative physiology, so have 
the nascent sciences alluded to above been under a con- 
tinual obligation to the methods of physical science, and 
especially those to which they are linked by means of the 
recognised science of ethnology. 
By thus widely extending the meaning of the word 
Science, the intention has been to widen the area over 
which the endowments of original research may be ex- 
tended, and to give an indication of the number of direc- 
tions in which scientific investigation should beencouraged. 
As an indirect consequence it may be suggested that this 
aspect of the matter shows an easy method by which the 
don of the last generation, an acute critic merely in longs 
and shorts, and erudite only in Greek particles, may be 
v 
