490 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 
in every province of the modern world. If you believe in the cause of dis- 
ciplined reason you will respond to the call and help to lift civilised man 
out of the morass in which he is now struggling, and set him on sound ground 
with his face toward the light. 
It is not by discoveries alone, and the records of them in volumes rarely 
consulted, that science is advanced, but by the diffusion of knowledge and 
the direction of men’s minds and actions through it. In these democratic 
days no one accepts as a working social ideal Aristotle’s view of a small and 
highly cuitivated aristocracy pursuing the arts and sciences in secluded groves 
and maintained by manual workers excluded from citizenship. Artisans to-day 
have quite as much leisure as members of professional classes, and science can 
assist in encouraging the worthy employment of it. This end can be attained 
by co-operative action between local scientific societies and representative 
organisations of labour. There should be close association and a common 
fellowship, and no suggestion of superior philosophers descending from the 
clouds to dispense gifts to plebeian assemblies. Above all, it should be remem- 
bered that a cause must have a soul as well as a body. The function of a 
mission-hall is different from that of a cinema-house or other place of enter- 
tainment, and manifestations of the spirit of science are more uplifting than 
the most instructive descriptive lectures. 
Science needs champions and advocates, in addition to actual makers. of 
new knowledge and exponents of it. There are now more workers in scientific 
fields than at any other time, yet relatively less is done to create enthusiasm 
for their labour and regard for its results than was accomplished fifty years 
ago. Every social or religious movement passes through like stages, from 
that of fervent belief to formal ritual. In science specialisation is essen- 
tial for progress, but the price which has to be paid for it is loss of 
contact with the general body of knowledge. Concentration upon any particular 
subject tends to make people indifferent to the aims and work of others; for, 
while high magnifying powers enable minute details to be discerned, the field 
of vision is correspondingly narrowed, and the relation of the structure as a 
whole to pulsating life around it is unperceived. 
As successful research is now necessarily limited for the most part to complex 
ideas and intricate details requiring special knowledge to comprehend them, 
very special aptitude is required to present it in such a way as will awaken 
the interest of people familiar only with the vocabulary of everyday life. 
In the scientific world the way to distinction is discovery, and not exposition, 
and rarely are the two faculties combined. Most investigators are so closely 
absorbed in their researches that they are indifferent as to whether people 
in general know anything of the results or not. In the strict sense of the 
word, science can never be popular, and its pure pursuit can never pay, but 
where one person will exercise his intelligence to understand the description 
of a new natural fact or principle a thousand are ready to admire the high 
purpose of a scientific quest and reverence the disinterested service rendered 
by it to humanity. The record of discovery or description of progress is, 
therefore, only one function of a local scientific society; beyond this is the 
duty of using the light of science to reveal the dangers of ignorance in high 
as well as in low places. Though in most societies there is only a small 
nucleus of working members, the others are capable of being interested in 
results achieved, and a few may be so stimulated by them as to become just 
and worthy knights of science, ready to remove any dragons which stand 
in the way of human progress, and continually upholding the virtues of their 
mistress. 
