540 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 405. 



jective reality. Science is at once more 

 humble and more reverent. She confesses 

 her ignorance of the ultimate nature of 

 matter, of the ultimate nature of energy, 

 and still more of the origin and ultimate 

 synthesis of the two. She is content with 

 her patient investigation of secondary 

 causes, and glad to know that since Tyn- 

 dall spoke in Belfast she has made great 

 additions to the knowledge of general 

 molecular mechanism^ and especially of 

 synthetic artifice in the domain of organic 

 chemistry, though the more exhaustive ac- 

 quaintance gained only forces us the more 

 to acquiesce in acknowledging the inscru- 

 table mystery of matter. Our conception 

 of the power and potency of matter has 

 grown in little more than a quarter of a 

 century to much more imposing dimen- 

 sions, and the outlook for the future as- 

 suredly suggests the increasing accelera- 

 tion of our rate of progress. For the 

 impetus he gave to scientific work and 

 thought, and for his fine series of re- 

 searches chiefly directed to Avhat Newton 

 called the more secret and noble works of 

 Nature within the corpuscles, the world 

 owes Tyndall a debt of gratitude. It is 

 well that his memory "should be held in 

 perennial respect, especially in the land of 

 his birth. 



THE ENDOWMENT OP EDUCATION. 



These are days of munificent benefac- 

 tions to science and education, which how- 

 ever are greater and more numerous in 

 other countries than in our own. Splendid 

 as they are, it may be doubted, if we take 

 into account the change in the value of 

 money, the enormous increase of popula- 

 tion, and the utility of science to the build- 

 ers of colossal fortunes, whether they bear 

 comparison with the efforts of earlier daj's. 

 But the habit of endowing science was so 

 long in practical abeyance that every evi- 

 dence of its resumption is matter for sin- 



cere congratulation. Mr. Cecil Rhodes has 

 dedicated a very large sum of money to 

 the advancement of education, though the 

 means he has chosen are perhaps not the 

 most effective. It must be remembered 

 that his aims were political as much as 

 educational. He had the noble and worthy 

 ambition to promote enduring friendship 

 between the great English-speaking com- 

 munities of the world, and knowing the 

 strength of college ties he conceived that 

 this end might be greatly furthered by 

 bringing together at an English univer- 

 sity the men who would presumably have 

 much to do in later life with the influ- 

 encing of opinion, or even with the direc- 

 tion of policy. It has been held by some a 

 striking tribute to Oxford that a man but 

 little given to academic pursuits or modes 

 of thought should think it a matter of high 

 importance to bring men from our colonies 

 or even from Germany, to submit to the 

 formative influences of that ancient seat 

 of learning. But this is perhaps reading 

 Mr. Rhodes backwards. He showed his 

 affectionate recollection of his college days 

 by his gift to Oriel. But, apart from the 

 main idea of fostering g^ood relations be- 

 tween those who Avill presumably be influ- 

 ential in England, in the colonies and in 

 the United States, Mr. Rhodes was prob- 

 ably influenced also by the hope that the 

 influx of strangers would help to broaden 

 Oxford notions and to procure revision of 

 conventional arrangements. 



Dr. Andrew Carnegie's endowment of 

 Scottish universities, as modified by him 

 in deference to expert advice, is a more 

 direct benefit to the higher education. 

 For while Mr. Rhodes has only enabled 

 young men to get what Oxford has to give, 

 Dr. Carnegie has also enabled his trustees 

 powerfully to augment and improve the 

 teaching equipment of the universities 

 themselves. At the same time he has pro- 

 vided as far as possible for the enduring 



