Januaut 5, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



9 



because he studies science, i£ lie studies for 

 a serious purpose, exactly as is true of the 

 man of arts, or the man of letters. Mere 

 addition to the sum of the interesting 

 knowledge of nature is in itself a good 

 thing ; exactly as the writing of a beautiful 

 poem, or the chiseling of a beautiful statue 

 is in itself a good thing. A nation that 

 does not understand this is not wholly civ- 

 ilized; and a democracy that does not un- 

 derstand this can not claim to stand abreast 

 of such a democracy as Athens in the past 

 and Prance in the present. 



In the next place, the greatest utilitarian 

 discoveries have often resulted from scien- 

 tific investigations which had no distinct 

 utilitarian purpose. Our whole art of naAd- 

 gation arose from the studies of certain. 

 Greek mathematicians in Alexandria and 

 Syracuse, who had no idea that their dis- 

 coveries would ever have a direct material 

 value. It is impossible to tell at what point 

 independent investigation into the work- 

 ings of nature may prove to have an imme- 

 diate and direct connection with the bet- 

 terment of man's physical condition. 



Most of the men and women, indeed the 

 immense majority of the men and women, 

 who work for pure science, can not aspire^ 

 to the position of leadership; exactly as, 

 most business men can not expect to press 

 into the ranks of the captains of industry. 

 Yet each can do work which is not onlj^ 

 creditable and useful, but which may at 

 any time become literally indispensable, in 

 helping to discover some great law of na- 

 ture, or to draw some great conclusion 

 from the present condition, or from the 

 former physical history, of the world. This 

 museum, like all similar institutions, should 

 do everything possible to develop large 

 classes of workers of this kind. 



We must never forget, however, that the 

 greatest need, and the need most difficult to 

 meet, is to develop great leaders, and to 



give full play to their activities. Of course 

 it must also be our aim to develop men who, 

 if they do not stand on the heights of great- 

 ness, shall at least occupy responsible po- 

 sitions of leadership. 



In the entirely proper effort to develop 

 numbers of individual workers, there must 

 be no forgetfulness of the need of indi- 

 vidual leadership, if American achieve- 

 ment in the scientific field is to be really 

 noteworthy. In the scientific (as in the 

 historical) associations and academies this 

 fact is sometimes forgotten. Undoubtedly 

 much that is indispensable has been done, 

 and much more can be done, in the field of 

 historical research by the collaboration of 

 numbers of men. But really great works. 

 will never be produced by such collabora- 

 tion. The really great works must be pro- 

 duced by an individual great man, who is 

 able to use to the utmost advantage the 

 indispensable work of a multitude of other 

 observers and investigators. He will be the 

 first to recognize the debt he is under to 

 these other observers and investigators ; if 

 he does not do so, he will show himself a 

 poor creature. On the other hand, if they 

 are worth their salt they will be proud to 

 have the great architect use all the results 

 of their praiseworthy and laborious and 

 necessary labor in constructing the build- 

 ing which is to crown it. 



Darwin's epoch-making work would 

 never have been done had not the founda- 

 tion been laid deep and wide by many 

 acute and faithful observers. But it needed 

 the man of masterly genius to produce the 

 great work. 



I need hardly say that insistence upon 

 the need of men of towering genius to do 

 the supreme, the epoch-making work, does 

 not in the least mean that there is not ut- 

 most need of first-class work of the ordin- 

 ary type by the rest of us, who are just 

 ordinary men. The best library is a mighty 



