416 
growing by accretion and constantly under- 
going internal change. This plasma may 
best be portrayed as for the most part un- 
organized, with partially or completely 
organized nuclei and nodes and processes 
here and there; and there is a certain fit- 
ness in conceiving the organized tracts as 
near the surface where the interactions be- 
tween external and internal are direct and 
continuous. In this way the intellectual 
product of the world may be likened unto a 
nebula, a cloud gathering in a super- 
saturated solution, an amceba, or a brain; 
it may be viewed as a chaos more or less 
advanced on the way toward cosmos. The 
image is ideal; it serves merely as an aid 
in grasping and formulating widespread 
notions concerning knowledge as an elusive 
and intangible yet vigorously real and im- 
portant something ; but it is not essential 
to correct understanding of the main facts 
in the growth of knowledge. 
Knowledge is born of the individual 
brain fertilized by indirect contact with 
other brains, and is given unto others with 
a degree of freedom varying with the dis- 
position of the individual and the perfec- 
tion of his mechanism for conveying thought 
—gesture, picture, speech, writing, print- 
ing; the growth of knowledge keeps even 
pace with the acquisition of structures and 
devices for its expression; and it is a 
pleasant and significant fact that in general 
the disposition to dispense knowledge grows 
strong and active just as the dispensing 
mechanism improves, though usually lag- 
ging a little behind, much as the verdure 
follows the vernal shower. So the stage of 
individual knowledge is initial, the stage of 
common knowledge consequent; so also 
individual knowledge is barren and un- 
productive until turned into the general 
fund to increase and multiply an hundred- 
fold; and so, too, there is progressive growth 
from the initial stage of individual dis- 
covery or invention, through many ill-de- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Vou. VI. No. 142. 
fined yet successively higher and higher 
steps, well toward the mature stage of 
general possession. It is needful to observe 
that the body of general knowledge can 
never quite equal the aggregate knowledge 
possessed by individuals ; although stimu- 
lated by others, each active individual 
knows something more than he is able to 
tell, be he never so free in disposition and 
facile in expression ; and it is the never- 
ending process of coining and issuing and 
exchanging the precious product of the 
cerebral crucible that gives rise to intel- 
lectual property-right, and at the same time 
enriches the great plasma of knowledge and 
maintains the activity essential to its ex- 
istence. It follows—and this scientific 
certitude may be commended to a certain 
class of socialistic schemers—that the rela- 
tion between individual knowledge and 
general knowledge is asymptotic, in that, 
although the latter constantly approaches, 
it never can reach the former; indeed, if 
general knowledge were ever to overtake 
individual knowledge, through suspension 
of the laws of intellectuality (undoubtedly 
immutable as those of vitality), the special 
province of mental activity would be anni- 
hilated and the body of knowledge would 
sink into quiescence—and, in the intellec- 
tual as in the vital, quiescence is death. 
As knowledge is produced and given unto 
others, the freedom of giving is governed by 
numberless conditions, including the per- 
fection or imperfection of the mechanism 
for expression, the avidity or indifference 
of the chosen beneficiaries, and the price 
fixed by custom; and so it happens that 
certain discoveries and inventions are di- 
rectly communicated only to limited groups 
of individuals, who thereby accumulate 
special knowledge. In this way cliques 
and trades and guilds arise and the germ of 
caste is planted; in this way, too, specialists 
erow up through the indifference of the 
masses and their inability to keep pace 
