SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 



is the distinction expressed by the terms 

 fundamental and superficial. They are 

 terms of comparison and admit of every 

 intergrade. In general, a university de- 

 voted to research should be interested in 

 the fundamental things of science, the 

 larger truths, that increase the general 

 perspective of knowledge and may under- 

 lie the possibilities of material progress 

 in many directions. On the other hand, 

 the immediate material needs of the com- 

 munity are to be met by the superficial 

 things of science, the external touch of 

 more fundamental things. The series may 

 move in either direction, but its end mem- 

 bers must always hold the same relative 

 positions. The first stimulus may be our 

 need, and a superficial science meets it, 

 but in so doing it may put us on the trail 

 that leads to the fundamentals of science. 

 On the other hand, the fundamentals may 

 be gripped first, and only later find some 

 superficial expression. The series is often 

 attacked first in some intermediate region, 

 and probably most of the research in pure 

 science may be so placed ; that is, it is rela- 

 tively fundamental ; but it is also relatively 

 superficial. The real progress of science 

 is always from the superficial toward the 

 fundamental; and the more fundamental 

 are our results, the more extensive may be 

 their superficial expression. In short, my 

 subject, "practical science," is no subject 

 at all, if it implies a special kind of science, 

 for all science is practical. 



I can not leave science in the position of 

 working on the chance that some of its re- 

 sults some day may be found to be of ma- 

 terial service to mankind. I have been 

 speaking the language of those who meas- 

 ure usefulness in terms of its market price, 

 and even at that low level the results of 

 science easily control the market. Per- 

 haps there are some who think that this is 

 the only level at which the usefulness of 



science is conspicuous; for it is often 

 thought of as the Pullman car of our civili- 

 zation, and not the passenger; something 

 that contributes to our convenience and 

 comfort, but something quite apart from 

 our intellectual and moral selves. 



To my mind, the largest usefulness of 

 science, its contribution of immeasurable 

 value to human welfare, is on the intellec- 

 tual level. It has developed and is con- 

 tinuing to develop the scientific attitude 

 of mind, an attitude that has literally 

 revolutionized thinking, so that all subjects 

 and all education have become scientific. 

 No more impressive testimony to this wide 

 and revolutionary influence of the sci- 

 entific spirit could be given than that con- 

 tained in the numerous memorial volumes 

 of last year in honor of Charles Darwin, 

 for his contribution was not so much the 

 theory of natural selection as the scientific 

 point of view. Perhaps the volume from 

 his own university illustrates this most 

 compactly. It contains papers written by 

 29 men, easily among the leaders in their 

 respective fields, and representing the 

 widest possible range of universities, and 

 all united in saying that this embodiment 

 of the scientific spirit revolutionized not 

 only zoology and botany and geology and 

 astronomy, but also the study of language, 

 of history, of sociology, of philosophy and 

 of religion. This means that all subjects 

 worthy of study and worthily studied have 

 become scientific. It also means that this 

 same scientific attitude is available for our 

 social problems, immensely more impor- 

 tant and vital than our material problems, 

 for they deal with human welfare. With- 

 out attempting to analyze in any adequate 

 way what has been called the scientific at- 

 titude of mind, or the scientific spirit, I 

 wish to indicate three of its useful char- 

 acteristics. 



1. It is a spirit of enquiry.— In our ex- 



