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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 662 



environment remained for tliousands of 

 years in a wholly undeveloped state. 



From this dormant condition natural 

 science emerged but slowly, although with 

 steadily increasing pace. Little by little, in 

 spite of occasional pauses of inactivity, or 

 apparent forgetfulness, human acquaint- 

 ance with the fundamental laws of the 

 universe has grown. Each century has 

 added something to the total; and usually 

 each century has added more than any 

 century before. What a contrast such a 

 development presents to that of sculpture, 

 for example, which reached nearly if not 

 quite its highest point of perfection more 

 than two thousand years ago! 



In chemistry especially has the accelera- 

 tion been great; and the effect of recent 

 growth is so remarkable, that, looking back, 

 one is inclined to deny the existence of any 

 real science of chemistry a century and a 

 half ago. If the accumulation of chemical 

 knowledge is depicted diagrammatically in 

 relation to the progress of time, measuring 

 one in the vertical and the other in a hori- 

 zontal direction, an upward-pointing curve 

 with steadily increasing inclination is ob- 

 tained. The curve stops at the present 

 day ; but unless a cataclysm annihilates the 

 earth's population and its libraries, this 

 line is bound to be continued. Whither 

 will it lead? What further insight into 

 his own constitution as well as that of his 

 environment may man attain 1 The answer 

 to these questions is fraught with weighty 

 significance as regards the future of the 

 hunlan race. 



All the manifold experiences of the 

 human mind are intimately connected with 

 the presence of that which we call material, 

 enlivened by its association with that which 

 we call energy; and the ultimate decipher- 

 ing of the great mystery of life will de- 

 pend as much upon the understanding of 

 these as upon the study of the mind itself. 



Thus modern chemistry should be regarded 

 not only as bringing to medicine and the 

 useful arts its obvious and multifarious 

 contributions, but also as occupying an 

 essentially important place in the realm of 

 intellectual speculation. 



First among the influences which have 

 affected the growth of chemistry may be 

 named that kind of insight which may be 

 called the scientific imagination. As this 

 quality of mind has sometimes been as- 

 sumed to be incompatible with exactness, a 

 brief discussion of its nature will not be 

 out of place. All who have intelligently 

 followed a really original research in chem- 

 istry will agree in maintaining that an 

 active and far-seeing imagination is re- 

 quired. Even the gleaner in the field of 

 matter and energy who seeks merely for 

 the facts, without especially concerning 

 himself with the meaning and bearing of 

 these facts, needs imagination, if his work 

 is to be useful. "He who lacks imagination 

 will see only that which he is told to see. 

 In any but the simplest scientific task, the 

 mind of the investigator must conceive of 

 many underlying conditions and possible 

 modifying circumstances which are not ap- 

 parent at first sight, and which demand 

 imagination for their detection and proper 

 adjustment. The highest type of scientific 

 man— he who compares and generalizes his 

 facts, who frames hypotheses concerning 

 their ultimate nature, and who from these 

 tentative speculations evolves new experi- 

 ments to expand his knowledge— needs an 

 imaginative mind in a yet higher degree. 

 Dealing with impersonal things, instead of 

 with personal emotions, this imagination is 

 indeed of a somewhat different type from 

 that exercised by the poet or artist; but it 

 is none the less fitly to be considered as 

 true imagination, and it likewise yields the 

 singular delight of creative power to its 

 possessor. 



