852 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 648 



■who knows all about the prices and quali- 

 ties of sugar, coffee and tea, and little else, 

 is nothing less than an exaggerated ex- 

 ample of over-specialized knowledge. In 

 the same way, I am sorry to say it, I have 

 met many an example of so-called scientists 

 whose science does not rank higher than 

 what is involved in the pursuits of my boy 

 when he is eagerly engaged in the collec- 

 tion of cancelled postage stamps. Knowl- 

 edge does not contribute necessarily to the 

 wisdom of the individual, unless that 

 knowledge be suiEciently diversified to 

 stimulate his thinking powers. The scien- 

 tist who spends all his time in purely theo- 

 retical work and looks down upon the man 

 who tries to find industrial applications for 

 our knowledge, shows just as much unwar- 

 ranted one-sidedness as the so-called 'prac- 

 tical' man or empiricist who expresses con- 

 tempt for purely scientific pursuits. 



For fear that I may be misinterpreted, 

 let me repeat that I shall be the last to 

 deny that every one of us is compelled to 

 specialize more or less, in order that we 

 may become thorough in some one branch 

 of human activity and in order to develop 

 our individual usefulness. I am aware 

 that even the dullest specialist, who does 

 conscientious work, will be of some use to 

 the community: If he be engaged in scien- 

 tific research work, and carefully records 

 well-observed facts, he renders a service 

 to mankind; he presents us with his own 

 home-made little bricks, which in time, will 

 be used by the architects of science to 

 build up the ever-increasing edifice of 

 knowledge. 



I hope, I need scarcely add, that I 

 further believe that well-recorded scien- 

 tific facts of small immediate importance 

 may in time become immensely valuable as 

 compared with elegant but wrongly con- 

 ceived theories based on hasty generaliza- 

 tions. 



I believe, also, that in these times of un- 



balanced industrialism and greed, the law 

 of self-preservation co mm ands us to select 

 a specialty as a bread-winning pursuit. I 

 am fully aware that insufficient pecuniary 

 resources compel many of us to curtail our 

 preliminary studies to the very minimum 

 consistent with what we absolutely need 

 so as to enter into a remunerative trade 

 or profession. 



But however light-weighted our educa- 

 tional baggage may be, when we enter 

 practical life, nothing but our own indif- 

 ference, our bad judgment, our lack of 

 aspiration towards nobler aims, prevents us 

 from remedying this. Every day of our 

 life, as long as we live, is given to us for 

 increasing by self -culture the slender outfit 

 with which we left school. And self-cul- 

 ture, in order to be effective, ought to be 

 directed so as to counteract any one-sided 

 tendencies resulting from our specialistic 

 daily occupations. 



The majority of individuals give by far 

 the largest amount of their work, their 

 endeavors, their thoughts, to the produc- 

 tion of wealth, or to put it simpler: the 

 art of making money. Yet, engrossed as 

 we are in this one-sided occupation, very 

 few of us think it worth while to undertake 

 the study of that science which investi- 

 gates the laws of production and distribu- 

 tion of wealth. Ignoring the true, if ele- 

 mentary, principles of political economy or 

 believing in a perverted political economy 

 which has been invented to serve the ends 

 of a few as against the rights and interests 

 of the many, we help to pei-petuate the 

 main cause of numerous social ailments. 

 The scant attempt of serious attention 

 which is given to this branch of knowledge 

 by any but a few specialists, has rendered 

 possible the exaggerations and irregulari- 

 ties of our system of industrialism. It 

 has helped to keep in bondage many de- 

 serving men of exalted character but 

 unable to develop their possibilities, as they 



