November 11, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



449 



it there can be no healthy growth in modern 

 life, mentally or physically. 



This Conference of Delegates provides the 

 most appropriate platform of all those offered 

 by the British Association from which a 

 message of exhortation may be given. There 

 are now 130 Corresponding Societies of the 

 Association, with a total membership of about 

 52,000, and their representatives should every 

 year go back not only strong with zeal for 

 new knowledge, but also as ministers filled 

 with the sense of duty to inspire others to 

 trust in it. In mechanics work is not con- 

 sidered to be done until the point of applica- 

 cation of the force is moved; and knowledge, 

 like energy, is of no practical value unless 

 it is dynamic. The scientific society which 

 shuts itself up in a house where a favored 

 few can contemplate its intellectual riches 

 is no better than a group of misers in its 

 relations to the community around it. The 

 time has come for a crusade which will plant 

 the flag of scientific truth in a bold position 

 in every province of the modern world. If 

 you believe in the cause of disciplined reason 

 you will respond to the call and help to lift 

 civilized 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 diffu- 

 sion of knowledge and the direction of men's 

 minds and actions through it. In these demo- 

 cratic days no one accepts as a working social 

 ideal Aristotle's view of a small and highly 

 cultivated aristocracy pursuing the arts and 

 sciences in secluded groves and maintained 

 by manual workers excluded from citizen- 

 ship. 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 cooperative action between local 

 scientific societies and representative organ- 

 izations of labor. There should be close as- 

 sociation and a common fellowship, and no 

 suggestion of superior philosophers descend- 

 ing from the clouds to dispense gifts to plebe- 



ian assemblies. Above all, it should be re- 

 membered 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 entertainment, and manifes- 

 tations of the spirit of science are more up- 

 lifting than the most instructive descriptive 

 lectures. 



Science needs champions and advocates, 

 in addition to actual makers of new knowl- 

 •'a:e and exponents of it. There are now 

 more workers in scientific fields than at any 

 other time, yet relatively less is done to cre- 

 ate enthusiasm for their labor and regard 

 for its results than was accomplished fifty 

 years ago. Every social or religious move- 

 ment passes through like stages, from that of , 

 fervent belief to formal ritual. In science 

 specialization is essential for progress, but 

 the price which has to be paid for it is loss 

 of contact with the general body of knowl- 

 edge. 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 correspond- 

 ingly narrowed, and the relation of the struc- 

 ture 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 knowl' 

 edge to comprehend them, very special apti- 

 tude 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 investiga- 

 tors 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 ex- 

 ercise his intelligence to understand the de- 

 scription of a new natural fact or principle 

 a thousand are ready to admire the high pur- 

 pose of a scientific quest and reverence the 



