404 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 402. 



trates his quality more perfectly than when 

 insisting, in the great debates of his time, 

 on the necessarily and essentially perfect 

 accordance of all truths and the universal 

 evolution of all the worlds. Truths are al- 

 ways mutually consistent and invariably 

 reinforce each other, without limitation. 

 The truths of science and the truths of re- 

 ligion, of morals, of luunanity, can never 

 conflict. Should it appear that an incon- 

 sistency exists between what are asserted 

 to be facts of science and what are declared 

 to be truths in theology, it would simply 

 compel the deduction that one or the other, 

 perhaps both, must be wrong; forcing the 

 honest and earnest man to the more com- 

 plete and detailed study of both, with 

 manifest and inevitable advantage to both 

 and to himself, compelling the reconcilia- 

 tion of both formulations by ascertaining 

 the real facts, the common truth. We daily 

 find ourselves on opposite sides of the 

 shield and most frequently discover, on in- 

 vestigation, that the substance is neither 

 the gold of the one side nor the silver of 

 the other, but something oftentimes more 

 precious than either. 



There is as certainly no ground for con- 

 flict between those who seek to promote 

 pure science and those who as earnestly and 

 honestly endeavor to advance applied sci- 

 ence. The laws of the universe are ours 

 to study and so to utilize as to promote, in 

 highest possible degree, the welfare of our 

 country, our neighbors, our families, our- 

 selves. The revelation of the facts and laws 

 of natural science, the upbuilding of the 

 framework and the filling in of the con- 

 struction called a science, is a first step and 

 its fortunate discoverers are the pioneers of 

 a large body of later investigators, these, in 

 turn, of a still larger body of men interested 

 in making useful the knowledge thus ac- 

 quired, in every field. All are needed; 

 each helps the other and all are helpful to 

 the world. "We do not discuss the relative 



importance of heai't and stomach to brain 

 and muscle, or of the pendulum to the dial 

 of the clock. 



All men gravitate toward their positions 

 of maximum usefulness in this world and 

 no two have precisely the same value or 

 power of achievement or adaptation to 

 place and task. Let each do the best possible 

 in the place and in the work thus coming 

 to each, and a maximum efficiency of pro- 

 duction, of utilization, of final accomplish- 

 ment will be achieved. 



The term ' revelation ' has an entirely cor- 

 rect signification in this connection. Not 

 the most brilliant genius and brightest 

 mind that ever adorned this world, lacking 

 that scientific Imowledge and training 

 which is essential to scientific progress and 

 to the discovery of the great facts of nature 

 and the ascertainment of nature 's law ; not 

 the meditations of the wisest and most 

 thoughtful mind that ever Buddhist or 

 Brahmin possessed, prolonged through all 

 eons constitiiting the Hindoo chronological 

 cycle; not the highest inspiration of any 

 sage of ancient or of modern times ; not all 

 nor any of these sources of wisdom could 

 reveal the characteristics of an element, the 

 nature of gravitation or its law, the ther- 

 modynamic quantivalence, the simplest 

 fact or the most elementary principle in 

 any science or achieve the fundamental 

 Imowledge of its youngest and least ex- 

 perienced novice. It is only science that 

 can give us a true revelation of the nature 

 of phenomena, the essential facts of life 

 and motion, or the real basis of evolutionary 

 changes; far less could either or all predict 

 the position at a stated time of a distant 

 star, the coming eclipse, the penetrative ef- 

 fect of a shot to be discharged from an as 

 yet unconstructed piece of ordnance, the 

 figures of the next decennial census, the 

 atomic weight of an undiscovered element, 

 or the time of high water at any future 

 time in the harbor of New York, Liverpool 



