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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 793 



initiative of the students of the experi- 

 mental sciences; and that the rest of the 

 world of scholars owes much to their ex- 

 ample. Here again I must make a qualifi- 

 cation lest I should be misunderstood. I 

 do not wish to imply that the essential 

 priority which is thus claimed for the ex- 

 perimental sciences is due to any superior 

 wisdom on the part of its students ; on the 

 contrary, I believe that it was the compara- 

 tive simplicity of the task they had before 

 them which enabled them to teach the 

 world how more difficult problems are to 

 be solved when their time comes. And I 

 wish to draw your attention to the parallel 

 between this general process and the place 

 which I have been claiming for scientific 

 studies in the education of the individual 

 student. If we are right in believing that 

 the study of the experimental sciences is 

 mainly responsible for this particular step 

 forward in the intellectual development of 

 mankind, then we must conclude that this 

 is a greater, a higher, a more vital service 

 than the invention of trolley-ears, the pro- 

 duction of cheap dye-stuffs, or even the 

 suppression of yellow fever. And if scien- 

 tific studies are peculiarly adapted to the 

 purpose of leading young men into the 

 paths of careful, sensible, fearless, orig- 

 inal thinking then these new laboratories 

 of yours have a much higher educational 

 function to perform than merely to pro- 

 duce engineers or technical chemists or 

 practising physicians. 



And now we come to a still more vital 

 question; how about the young man's 

 morals? Have scientific studies any eth- 

 ical effect, and if so is it in the right direc- 

 tion or the wrong one? The problem is a 

 specific one and so we may leave to one 

 side the ancient question as to how much 

 knowledge has to do with conduct. It may 

 be that perfect knowledge of good and evil 

 would inevitably result in the choice of the 



good and that the will would, under such 

 ideal conditions, be the servant of the intel- 

 lect. But we know, alas! that perfect 

 knowledge of good and evil is no more the 

 attribute of any human mind than perfect 

 knowledge of scientific truth; and we see 

 too many instances in which a man knows 

 and approves the better path and yet fol- 

 lows the worse, to be able to believe that 

 morality is a matter of knowledge alone. 

 It is plain, however, that sound knowledge 

 and intellectual judgment must in general 

 be antecedent to the deliberate choice of 

 virtue; and that some training of the will 

 itself is possible ; if it be led to choose the 

 good and the true habitually in lesser 

 things, it is more likely to react nobly in 

 times of stress and difficulty. These are 

 doubtless minor functions in the domain of 

 morals, but they are very necessary ones; 

 and I think it may be successfully main- 

 tained that the natural sciences are strong 

 allies of the forces which are fighting on 

 the side of virtue in the great battle of 

 good and evil. 



Let the truth be proclaimed though the 

 heavens fall, has been and must continue 

 to be the fundamental principle of real 

 science. At times in the past it has seemed 

 to many that the heavens were falling — but 

 they have not fallen ; on the contrary, they 

 have acquired a new glory which our eyes 

 had not before seen. The medieval church 

 thought quite honestly that Galileo, if he 

 were allowed to go on, might wreck the 

 universe at least for those who believed 

 him. But how different has been the real 

 result of his labors and of the work of 

 those astronomers who have followed after 

 him. For us it is true, with a depth and 

 intensity which David could not have 

 known, that "the heavens declare the glory 

 of God; and the firmament sheweth his 

 handiwork. ' ' 



So in the middle of the nineteenth cen- 



