‘OCTOBER 6, 1899. ] 
and again we may read in the words of 
some man of old the outlines of an idea 
which in later days has shone forth as a 
great acknowledged truth. From the mouth 
of the man of old the idea dropped barren, 
fruitless; the world was not ready for it, 
and heeded it not; the concomitant and 
abutting truths which could give it power 
to work were wanting. Coming back again 
in later days, the same idea found the world 
awaiting it; things were in travail prepar- 
ing for it: and someone, seizing the right 
moment to put it forth again, leapt into 
fame. It is not somuch the men of science 
who make science, as some spirit which, 
born of the truths already won, drives the 
man of science onward and uses him to win 
new truths in turn. 
It is because each man of science is not 
his own master, but one of many obedient 
servants of an impulse which was at work 
long before him, and will work long 
after him, that in science there is no 
falling back. In respect to other things 
there may be times of darkness and times 
of light, there may be risings, decadences 
and revivals. In science there is only 
progress. The path may not be always a 
straight line, there may be swerving to this 
side and to that, ideas may seem to return 
again and again to the same point of the 
intellectual compass ; but it will always be 
found that they have reached a higher 
level—they have moved, not in a circle, but 
in a spiral. Moreover, science is not fash- 
ioned as is a house, by putting brick to 
brick, that which is once put remaining as 
it was put to the end. The growth of sci- 
ence is that of a living being. As in the 
embryo phase follows phase, and each 
member or body puts on in succession dif- 
ferent appearances, though all the while the 
same member, so a scientific conception of 
one age seems to differ from that of a fol- 
lowing age, though it is the same one in the 
process of being made ; and as the dim out- 
SCIENCE. 
475 
lines of the early embryo become, as the 
being grows more distinct and sharp, like 
a picture on a screen brought more and 
more into focus, sothe dim gropings and 
searchings of the men of science of old are 
by repeated approximations wrought into 
the clear and exact conclusions of later 
times. 
The story of natural knowledge, of sci- 
ence, in the nineteenth century, as, indeed, 
in preceding centuries, is, I repeat, a story 
of continued progress. There is in it not so 
much as a hint of falling back, not even of 
standing still. What is gained by scientific 
inquiry is gained forever ; it may be added 
to, it may seem to be covered up, but it can ~ 
never be taken away. Confident that the 
progress will go on, we cannot help peer- 
ing into the years to come and straining 
our eyes to foresee what science will be- 
come and what it will do as they roll on. 
While we do so, the thought must come to 
us, Will all the increasing knowledge of 
Nature avail only to change the ways of 
man —will it have no effect on man himself? 
The material good which mankind has 
gained and is gaining through the ad- 
vance of science is so imposing as to be 
obvious to everyone, and the praises of 
this aspect of science are to be found in the 
mouths of all. Beyond all doubt science 
has greatly lessened and has markedly 
narrowed hardship and suffering; beyond 
all doubt science has largely increased and 
has widely diffused ease and comfort. The 
appliances of science have, as it were, cov- 
ered with a soft cushion the rough places of 
life, and that not for the rich only, but also 
for the poor. So abundant and so promi- 
nent are the material benefits of science 
that in the eyes of many these seem to be 
the only benefits which she brings. She is 
often spoken of as if she were nseful and 
nothing more, as if her work were only to 
administer to the material wants of man. 
