122 SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND LIFE. 



or beetles, and the thought often arises in the minds of 

 some— what benefit is there in spending one's time in 

 such pursuits ? 



There are indeed many branches of scientific research, 

 of which the immediate or the not remote advantages, 

 are clear enough. The investigation of heat, and light, 

 chemical composition, and of animalculae as sources of 

 disease, yield practical results of very great value and of 

 the worth of which our own age certainly is not all scep- 

 tical. But there are many other branches of scientific 

 investigation, so remotely allied to utility, that their 

 pursuit cannot easily be explained on other grounds than 

 those that we have named. 



The instinct of self-preservation and the desire to bet- 

 ter ourselves, stimulates researches in these seemingly 

 uninviting fields, because extension of our knowledge in 

 any direction, does help us to adjust ourselves more har- 

 moniously with the environment that surrounds us. 

 The more we know of this physical universe, the more 

 perfectly can we make it serviceable to us, and therefore 

 the better ordered our lives may be, in so far as we are 

 more completely in accord with physical conditions, 

 from which we cannot by any possibility escape. 



When looked at in this light, the value of scientific 

 knowledge is of the most solid kind. Each may be pur- 

 suing his own special line, never giving a thought to the 

 basal motive that is quickening his energy; and yet 

 every discovery that he makes, every addition to the 

 stock of knowledge that he contributes, is a gift to the 

 race, that by enriching it, helps the race forward. But 

 in addition to this general result that follows from any 

 extension of our knowledge, and which is the real reason 

 why we seek knowledge, there are to the individual, col- 

 lateral advantages of no small moment, that accompany 

 its pursuit. I refer now more particularly to that knowl- 

 edge that we term scientific. 



7S 



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