SEPTEMBER 11, 1902] 
NATURE 
465 
as are the poles asunder from the presumptuous attempt to 
travel beyond the study of secondary causes. Any discussion 
as to whether matter or energy was the true reality would have 
appeared to Tyndall as a futile metaphysical disputation which, 
being completely dissociated from verified experience, would 
lead to nothing. No explanation was attempted by him of the 
origin of the bodies we call elements, nor how some of such 
bodies came to he compounded into complex groupings and 
built upinto special structures with which, so far as we know, 
the phenomena characteristic of life are invariably associated. 
The evolutionary doctrine leads us to the conclusion that life, 
such as we know it, has only been possible during a short period 
of the world’s history, and seems equally destined to disappear 
in the remote future ; but it postulates the existence of a material 
universe endowed with an infinity of powersand properties, the 
origin of which it does not pretend to account for. The enigma 
at both ends of the scale Tyndall admitted, and the futility of 
attempting to answer such questions he fully recognised. 
Nevertheless, Tyndall did not mean that the man of science 
should be debarred from speculating as to the possible nature of 
the simplest forms of matter or the mode in. which life may 
have originated on this planet. Lord Kelvin, in his Presidential 
Address, put the position admirably when he said ‘‘Science is 
bound by the everlasting law. of honour to face fearlessly 
every problem that can fairly be presented to it. If a 
probable solution consistent with the ordinary course of 
Nature can be found, we must not invoke an abnormal act of 
Creative Power”’; and in illustration he forthwith proceeded 
to express his conviction that from time immemorial many 
worlds of life besides our own have existed, and that ‘‘it is not 
an unscientific hypothesis that life originated on this earth 
through the moss-grown fragments from the ruins of another 
world.” In spite of the great progress made in science, it is 
curious to notice the occasional recrudescence of metaphysical 
dogma. For instance, there is a school which does not hesitate 
to revive ancient mystifications in order to show that matter 
and energy can be shattered by philosophical arguments, and 
have no objective reality. Science is at once more humble and 
more reverent. She confesses her ignorance of the ultimate 
nature of matter, of the ultimate nature of energy, and still more 
of the origin and ultimate synthesis of the two.. She is content 
with her patient investigation of secondary causes, and glad to 
know that since Tyndall spoke in Belfast she has made great 
additions to the knowledge of general molecular mechanism, 
and especially of synthetic artifice in the domain of organic 
chemistry, though the more exhaustive acquaintance gained 
only forces us the more to acquiesce in acknowledging the in- 
scrutable mystery of matter. Our conception of the power and 
potency of matter has grown in little more than a quarter of a 
century to much more imposing dimensions, and the outlook for 
the future assuredly suggests the increasing acceleration of our 
rate of progress. For the impetus he gave to scientific work 
and thought, and for his fine series of researches chiefly directed 
to what Newton called the more secret and noble works of 
Nature within the corpuscles, the world owes Tyndall a debt of 
gratitude. It is well that his memory should be held in 
perennial respect, especially in the land of his birth. 
The Endowment of Education. 
These are days of munificent benefactions to science and 
education, which, however, are greater and more numerous in 
other countries than in our own. Splendid as they are, it may 
be doubted, if we take into account the change in the value of 
money, the enormous increase of population and the utility of 
science to the builders of colossal fortunes, whether they bear 
comparison with the efforts of earlier days. But the habit of 
endowing science was so long in practical abeyance that every 
evidence of its resumption is matter for sincere congratulation. 
Mr. Cecil Rhodes has dedicated a very large sum of money to 
the advancement of education, though the means he has chosen 
are perhaps not the most effective. It must be remembered 
that his aims were political as much as educational. He 
had the noble and worthy ambition to promote enduring 
friendship between the great English-speaking communities 
of the world, and knowing the strength of college ties 
he conceived that this end might be greatly furthered by 
bringing together at an English university the men who would 
presumably have much to do in later life with the influencing 
of opinion, or even with the direction of policy. It has 
been held by some a striking tribute to Oxford that a man but 
NO. 1715, VOL. 66] 
little given to academic pursuits or modes of thought should 
think it a matter of high importance to bring men from our 
colonies or even from Germany, to submit to the formative 
influences of that ancient seat of learning. But this is perhaps 
reading Mr. Rhodes backwards. He showed his affectionate 
recollection of his college days by his gift to Oriel. But, apart 
from the main idea of fostering good relations between those 
who will presumably be influential in England, in the colonies, 
and in the United States, Mr. Rhodes was probably influenced 
also by the hope that the influx of strangers would help to 
broaden Oxford notions and to procure revision of conventional 
arrangements.» 
Dr. Andrew Carnegie’s endowment of Scottish universities, 
as modified by him in deference to expert advice, is a more 
direct benefit to the higher education. For while Mr. Rhodes 
has only enabled young men to get what Oxford has to give, 
Dr. Carnegie has also enabled his trustees powerfully to augment 
and improve the teaching equipment of the universities them- 
selves. At the same time, he has provided as far as possible 
for the enduring usefulness of his money. His trustees form a 
permanent body external to the universities, which, while pos- 
sessing no power of direct control, must always, as holder of 
the purse-strings, be in a position to offer independent and 
weighty criticisms. More recently Dr. Carnegie has devoted 
an equal sum of ten million dollars to the foundation of a 
Carnegie Institution in Washington. Here again he has been 
guided by the same ideas. He has neither founded a university 
nor handed over the money to any existing university. He has 
created a permanent trust charged with the duty of watching 
educational efforts and helping them from the outside according 
to the best judgment that can be formed in the circumstances of 
the moment. Its aims are to be—to promote original research ; 
to discover the exceptional man in every department of study, 
whether inside or outside of the schools, and to enable him to 
make his special study his life-work ; to increase facilities for 
higher education ; to aid and stimulate the universities and 
other educational institutions ; to assist students who may prefer 
to study at Washington; and to ensure prompt publication of 
scientific discoveries. The general purpose of the founder is to 
secure, if possible, for the United States leadership in the 
domain of discovery and the utilisation of new forces for the 
benefit of man. Nothing will more powerfully further this end 
than attention to the injunction to lay hold of the exceptional 
man whenever and wherever he may be found, and, having got 
him, to enable him to carry on the work for which he seems 
specially designed. That means, I imagine, a scouring of the 
old world, as well as of the new, for the best men in every 
department of study—in fact, an assiduous collecting of brains 
similar to the collecting of rare books and works of art which 
Americans are now carrying on in so lavish a manner. As in diplo- 
macy and war, so in science, we owe our reputation, and no small 
part of our prosperity, to exceptional men; and that we do 
not enjoy these things in fuller measure we owe to our 
lack of an army of well-trained ordinary men capable of utilising 
their ideas. Our exceptional men have too often worked in 
obscurity, without recognition from a public too imperfectly in- 
structed to guess at their greatness, without assistance from a 
State governed largely by dialecticians, and without help from 
academic authorities hidebound by the pedantries of medieval 
scholasticism. For such men we have to wait upon the will of 
Heaven. Even Dr. Carnegie will not always find them when 
they are wanted. But what can be done in that direction will 
be done by institutions like Dr. Carnegie’s, and for the benefit 
of the nation that possesses them in greatest abundance and uses 
them most intelligently. When contemplating these splendid 
endowments of learning, it occurred to me that it would be 
interesting to find out exactly what some definite quantity of 
scientific achievement has cost in hard cash. In an article by 
Carl Snyder in the January number of the North American 
Review, entitled ‘“‘ America’s Inferior Place in the Scientific 
World,” I found the statement that ‘‘it would be hardly too 
much to say that during the hundred years of its existence the 
Royal Institution alone has done more for English science than 
all of the English universities put together. This is certainly 
true with regard to British industry, for it was here that the 
discoveries of Faraday were made.” I was emboldened by this 
estimate from a distant and impartial observer to do, what other- 
wise I might have shrunk from doing, and to take the Royal 
Institution—after all, the foundation of an American citizen, 
Count Rumford—as the basis of my inquiry. The work done 
