August 7, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



171 



to retain the exclusive spirit aud sectarian 

 bigotry that characterized some uuiversi- 

 ties, which had started well but unfor- 

 tunately were 'captured' for a time by a 

 privileged and unrepresentative few, from 

 the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. 

 John Bright dubbed one of these institu- 

 tions with cutting but deserved sarcasm 

 as 'the home of dead languages and of un- 

 dying prejudices. ' 



Science knows no such distinctions, and 

 rcfu-ses to recognize them. She writes 

 deeply on the warp and woof of human 

 and of all organic existence the law that 

 vtility conserves, strengthens and continues 

 life, that disuse weeds out and destroys. 

 I glory then in the utilitarian, which in 

 the recently gone century has stirred our 

 common human life to titanic action in 

 every field, has revivified and advanced 

 true education, has .sown broadcast colleges 

 and univei'sities, and has sent forth from 

 these enthusiastic disciples aglow with the 

 spirit of research and of experiment. This 

 3'oung century, then, before its death, will 

 witness mighty scientific achievement, com- 

 pared with which all that has been un- 

 folded will be only the prelude. 



But here let us linger over the terms 

 use, utility, utilitarianism. It is easy to 

 distort and misconstrue their precise scien- 

 tific significance. When one looks with 

 the botanical eye at those large, bright- 

 blue marginal florets of the corn-flower, 

 and discovers in them neither stamens nor 

 carpels for fruit production, one is apt to 

 exclaim hastily: 'They are useless, they 

 have no claim to existence.' But patience 

 tells us to watch, to observe and to learn 

 how these attract passing insect visitors 

 to the small inconspicuous central florets, 

 which by aid of the attracted visitors set 

 abimdant fruits. The marginal florets seem 

 at first gaudy superfluities, but though 

 they have only one use in life, like the 



leader of men who had once blacked shoes, 

 they can all claim: 'Didn't I do it well?' 

 Every scientific fact is useful, but may not 

 necessarily be used. As Darwin patiently 

 dissected cirripeds, studied and described 

 the sti'ucture of orchid blooms, observed 

 the slow revolutions of twining plants, 

 counted the number of seeds that dift'erent 

 [ilants might produce, a financial speculator 

 escaped from the unhallowed bedlam of 

 the stock exchange, aud looking in on the 

 sage in his quiet country home at the 

 week's end to cool his nerves, might have 

 declared it all a waste of time and labor. 

 We know that Dainvin was laying the foun- 

 dations of those principles that have revo- 

 lutionized all thought, and that he was 

 paving the way for the economic death of 

 this speculating friend, who biologically is 

 a human parasite. 



AMiat relation then has science, and 

 should it have, to our universities on the 

 one hand, and to common life— to the mass 

 of free, earnest thinking people, on the 

 other? In attempting to answer we must 

 constantly keep in view tradition and his- 

 tory—our relation to our ancestors, real or 

 imaginary. We all, like the Chinese, worship 

 these ancestors— at least in their relations— 

 and they worship them most powerfully who 

 are furthest removed from the land that gave 

 them birth. So it is that we fear to break 

 with the past, and inherit incongruous com- 

 binations. Says AVhewell in the lecture 

 already referred to : " You will not be sur- 

 prised to be told that our modern education 

 has derived something from the ancient 

 Greek education, because you know that 

 our modern science has derived much from 

 the ancient Greek science. You know that 

 our science— in the ordinary sense of the 

 term— has derived little from the ancient 

 Romans. • • * But if we take the term 

 science in a somewhat 'wide' acceptation, 

 we shall derive from the Roman history 



