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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1101 



live and grow. Some remain, immortal but 

 alone, like the ancient theorem of Pytha- 

 goras or perhaps in recent years Morley's 

 Pentacle, that creation of tantalizing beauty 

 and illusory simplicity. Most new ideas 

 in geometry die early, or pass, by publica- 

 tion, into the condition of mummies or 

 fossils; let our grateful recognition and 

 praise follow then those fortunate worthies 

 like Poncelet, whose genius has given us 

 the fruitful ideas, problems and theories 

 with a significance stretching far beyond 

 their accidental first form, reappearing 

 through the years in new embodiments, and 

 so achieving a life if not perpetual, at least 

 as long enduring as the present era of in- 

 tellectual culture. 



H. S. White 

 Vassar College 



THE CONTEST WITH PHYSICAL 

 NATURE 1 



I FANCY that if Christopher Columbus is 

 able at this time to survey this world and see 

 what is happening that he is well pleased at 

 his venturesome voyage. While the nations of 

 the world that he left have their knives at 

 each other's throats the peoples of this new 

 world have sent their most learned men, their 

 philosophers, their scientists, inventors and 

 engineers to talk with one another as to how 

 this new land may become wiser, richer and be 

 made more useful. This is surely a contrast. 

 It is a condition for which my knowledge of 

 history offers no parallel. 



There are times I know when nations who 

 believe in themselves must fight. But let us 

 not delude ourselves with the notion that 

 civilization is the product of arms. The only 

 excuse for war is to secure peace, that men of 

 thought, resourcefulness and skill may have 

 opportunity to make themselves masters of the 

 secrets of nature. 



For the real battle of the centuries is not 

 between men or between nations or between 



1 Address before the Mining and Geological Sec- 

 tion of the Pan-American Scientific Congress. 



races. The one fight, the enduring contest, is 

 between man and physical nature. 



There is no denying the fact that we live in 

 a world that is hostile and secretive. It is 

 organized to destroy us if it can. Our enemies 

 have cunning and ferocity. We have but to 

 fold our arms and the beasts, the flies, the rats, 

 the mosquitoes and the vermin would make us 

 their easy prey. And if they could not win by 

 force, they would bring death by starvation. 

 This world was made for a fighting man and 

 for none other. Softness is not to be our por- 

 tion, because nature knows no holiday. So 

 man must battle with nature that he may se- 

 cure that physical peace necessary to give his 

 spirit a chance to show itself in things of 

 beauty and deeds of goodness. 



And this is what we call civilization — this 

 triumph over the down-pull of nature. We 

 make her yield. We master her secrets. 

 With wooden club and stone axe, with bow and 

 arrow and with fire man mastered his wild 

 enemies and then with seed and water man 

 mastered the surface of the earth. The sea 

 challenged him and he discovered the fioating 

 log, the paddle and then the sail, until he made 

 himself master also of the surface of the sea. 

 These things it took ages to do. Nature re- 

 vealed nothing. Man had to observe and re- 

 flect that he might discover or invent. Was 

 there ever such a discovery as that a planted 

 seed would sprout and yield ? Or that the wind 

 would drive a hollowed log ? 



But these things happened long ago. And 

 now we have made not only the sm^face of the 

 land and sea our own, but their depths as well. 

 The wind not only fills our sails, but we master 

 the air itself. We make our own lightning and 

 harness it to work for us, to push and to pull, 

 to lift and to turn. We have found the great 

 secret that nature can be made to fight nature. 

 But we must fight with her for our weapons. 

 They are not handed to us; they are hidden 

 from us. If man is to have dominion over this 

 earth, he is committed to an unending search. 

 He must bore and burrow, dig and blast, crush 

 and refine, distill and mix, burn and compress 

 until he forces nature to yield her locked and 

 buried treasures. 



