OCTOBBE 27, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



555 



■with their own specialty alone, it is likely that 

 the public would acquire a more intelligent 

 idea of what its essentials are, and a greater 

 power to discriminate between those who rep- 

 resent and those who misrepresent it. With a 

 united and sensitive scientific opinion, varia- 

 tions in either direction from its golden mean 

 would be much more quickly detected and 

 much less successful in obtaining public 

 credence than they now are. The building of 

 vast and elaborate structures of theory on 

 microscopic foundations of fact would not 

 escape scrutiny to the extent that it does now, 

 and the pedagogist who promulgates his prin- 

 ciples on the evidence of random, silly, or 

 morbid statements gleaned from question- 

 naires, as well as the anthropologist who deter- 

 mines ethnic relationships on a few insignifi- 

 cant facts and his own racial or intellectual 

 prejudices, or classifies the human race on the 

 evidence of five or six skulls, and all similar 

 empirics would have to find another livery 

 than that of science to wear. Likewise, if a 

 man should attempt to make history, philos- 

 ophy, literature and kindred subjects exact 

 sciences by some such simple expedient as 

 measuring the amount of commentary on men 

 and events to determine their importance, his 

 plan would very soon be dismissed perma- 

 nently as merely an effort to reduce an in- 

 tensely complicated problem to a simple matter 

 of sense perception — a thing that men will 

 always try to do, just as they have sought the 

 fountain of youth, the philosopher's stone, and 

 more lately perpetual motion, but in doing so 

 have shown themselves not scientific, but the 

 reverse of it. 



Another thing that might be done is to de- 

 fine more clearly the relation between theoret- 

 ical and applied science. The general opinion 

 now seems to tend altogether too much in the 

 direction of believing that a choice must be 

 made between them, and that to believe in the 

 value of the one implies condemning the other. 

 Of course there can be no intelligent con- 

 demnation of applied science, for theoretical 

 science has no value apart from its application 

 at some time or other; but what can be con- 

 demned is the prevalent idea that applied 

 science is everything, and that if research or 



investigation can not be shown to have direct 

 bearing on some problem of practical life it is 

 valueless. This is a notion that scientific men 

 owe it to themselves to combat and to over- 

 throw. Let applied science have its honored 

 place, let it be admitted that James Watt, even 

 that the inventor of a useful mouse-trap, is a 

 scientist; but let it also be recognized that 

 Newton and men of his type deserve the title 

 likewise, and that applied science owes some- 

 thing to their efforts and should be willing, not 

 only to acknowledge the debt, but also to per- 

 ceive the grounds on which it is due. Per- 

 haps if this were done there would be less of 

 what Professor Walker^ has called " the spirit 

 of alchemy " among present-day scientists, and 

 there might also be a more intelligent idea of 

 the nature of science abroad in the land — a 

 realization that it means first of aU a love of 

 truth to which not only subjective hopes of 

 immortality, and beloved traditions and be- 

 liefs, but even the love of profit itself must be 

 subordinate. 



Extending their sympathies and interests 

 beyond the bounds of their own sphere of 

 knowledge might also enable scientific men to 

 aid somewhat in bringing about a better 

 understanding of the real significance of lit- 

 erature. At present they, for the most part, 

 regard the subject as a necessary evil to be 

 suppressed as much as public opinion will 

 permit. Others believe that it has some value, 

 and although they can not make themselves 

 see just what it is, they are nevertheless will- 

 ing to take it on trust. Still others express 

 great admiration for the subject, but their 

 utterances concerning it often suggest that 

 their understanding of it is not very profound. 

 A saving remnant, however, show an intelli- 

 gent appreciation and understanding of litera- 

 ture, and not less by what they reprehend than 

 by what they praise, prove themselves its 

 friends. It is this latter class that more 

 catholic sympathies would undoubtedly in- 

 crease; and with scientific opinion having the 

 weight it has to-day, its influence on the 

 public mind ought to be very great. On the 

 academic world its influence should be even 



^ ' ' Alchemy in Modern Industry, ' ' Science, N. 

 S., Vol. XXXIII., p. 913. 



