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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 303. 



these things ? Can I prove that every his- 

 torical fact which may be discovered will be 

 found to have a directly practical ethical 

 or political significance ? Can I show that 

 all psychological experimentation is capital 

 in the hands of the pedagogue ? Does the 

 discovery of every new beetle prove a boon 

 to the agriculturist or to any one else ? Are 

 all philosophers so inspired that we may 

 assume their words to be of value, whether 

 we understand them or not ? Manifestly, I 

 can not prove these things, or show in just 

 what respect human life has been enriched 

 by a multitude of seekers after truth who 

 have, perhaps, really succeeded in adding 

 their modicum to the sum total of our 

 knowledge. 



Kor do I stand here with any desire to 

 prove such things. The thought which I 

 wish to bring before you is a very dif- 

 ferent one. It is that it is in no way 

 incumbent upon you to give such a proof, 

 or to torture yourselves with the idea that 

 you must daily justify your labors by the 

 exhibition of what is often called their 

 practical importance. Science and letters 

 would come to a sorry pass if it were re- 

 garded as indecorous for man to look upon 

 the naked truth, and if she were held 

 to be a fit object of contemplation only 

 when bundled up in her working clothes 

 and busied about the hearth or the loom. 

 A too narrow attention to what is com- 

 monly called ' the practical ' would sap the 

 very foundations of progress ; would defeat 

 its own ends by cutting off that light which 

 is our final guarantee of life and growth. 

 Shall we close some of the windows in the 

 house of life because this or that age pre- 

 fers to have its light filtered through a par- 

 ticular medium ? What may be the needs 

 of man, the direction of development of so- 

 ciety in the ages to succeed our own ? Who 

 can tell what knowledge will be found to 

 be of the profoundest moment to those who 

 come after us ? Shall we, in our littleness, 



shut our eyes on the living miracle about us, 

 except at such times as its light reveals just 

 those objects which seem providentially in- 

 tended for our particular dinner-pail ? Some 

 nonsense has, to be sure, been talked about 

 ' truth for truth's sake '; ' truth,' we are apt 

 to object, ' for the sake of life." But in the 

 larger faith of science, that faith without* 

 which the world could not have been where 

 it now is, there is no truth that may not 

 be of value to life ; no truth that is not 

 worthy of our highest endeavor. 



Perhaps it will be admitted that truth 

 should be sought in a generous spirit, and 

 that, in the history of the human race, the 

 army of those who have peered curiously 

 into the mysteries of human life and the na- 

 ture of things has played a part that cannot 

 be overestimated. We have, it seems to 

 me, a right to demand so much, at least, of 

 all intelligent men. But the question re- 

 mains : What can we say touching the in- 

 dividual value of the numberless units that 

 have tramped wearily in the ranks ? That 

 the great captains have accomplished some- 

 thing notable few will deny. They have 

 conquered the fair lands that we now culti- 

 vate. But how of the common soldier, 

 whose very name is unknown, except to the 

 few who busy themselves with the dusty 

 records of an almost forgotten past, and love 

 to loiter in the by-ways of curious learning ? 

 Has he existed to no purpose? Has he 

 toiled in vain ? 



Surely not. He has done what he could. 

 He has contributed his little to the enlight- 

 enment of the race; and out of his very 

 errors, his perplexed and rather aimless 

 marchings to and fro, there may have come 

 a result he little expected and as little hoped. 

 Only be who knows something of the his- 

 tory of human knowledge knows with what 

 pangs of labor the modern world has been 

 brought to the birth. It is an ancient fable 

 that makes Minerva spring fully armed 

 from the head of Jove. Not thus is knowl- 



