jANUAE-y 2, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



of the term ' scientific spirit. ' If he means 

 by it that humble spirit of inquiry based 

 upon systematic methods of analysis which 

 are really applicable to the nature of the 

 inquiry, I certainly can not agree with him 

 that it can do any disservice or that it 

 would be anything but a basis of hope as 

 the ruling element in a revolution. I do 

 not believe that President Wilson enter- 

 tains any such idea. If he means, how- 

 ever, to signify by 'scientific spirit' that 

 widespread and portentous 'neglect of the 

 essential qualities in things,' I most cer- 

 tainly approve his meaning and share his 

 feelings of distress, although I disapprove 

 his mode of expression. 



Scientific men are of course not entirely 

 free from this neglect of the essential 

 qualities in things, but I think that the 

 chief neglect lies in the general popular 

 imagination, and I believe that the growth 

 of modern science and the resulting trans- 

 formations of our material world, have 

 brought upon us an acute and distressing 

 manifestation of it. Inasmuch as I intend 

 to speak to you mainly of the nature and 

 extent of the influence of scientific work 

 on the popular imagination, I may claim 

 to speak on popular science. 



We can not discuss intelligently any 

 subordinate manifestation of science until 

 we come to some mutual understanding 

 as to what science itself is; but I must 

 confess that I do not like to go to the 

 extent of defining a thing which, in my 

 own mind at least, is so severely plain and 

 humble. I do not know how you feel, but 

 for my part I am sick of this disgusting 

 din which has been increasing for a hun- 

 dred years in canting praise of science, a 

 din which I can most easily specify to your 

 perception by saying that my reluctance 

 to define science is chiefly the fear that 

 a pack of popular idiots will rise up 

 with indiscriminate shouting and say— you 

 know, of course, that I have endless choice 



of ridiculous sayings of influential men in 

 needless and foolish praise of science to 

 quote from ! Science does not need praise, 

 nor does work need praise ; they both need 

 plain wages. I think it is time to urge 

 a definition of science which will help to 

 purge the popular imagination. Science is 

 the spirit of work. I do not mean the 

 spirit of a man who works, but I do mean 

 simply that science has to do solely with 

 the increasing efficacy of the sweaty labor 

 of this world. I am little disposed to 

 argue what many of you may be inclined 

 to think an undue jiarrowness in this defi- 

 nition, but I assure you that it is wide 

 enough for me. 'An affected thinker,' 

 says Ruskin, 'who supposes his thinking 

 of any other importance than as it tends 

 to work is about the vainest kind of per- 

 son that can be found' among busy men. 



My own knowledge of science rests partly 

 on anticipation and partly on a college and 

 university experience more than usually 

 varied, and I am convinced that science is 

 'primarily concerned with the making of 

 breeches,' although, of course, you know 

 and I know many things not now appli- 

 cable to that useful, or in some cases it 

 may be useless, business. Perhaps one 

 who is chiefly engaged in technical educa- 

 tion is prone to accept that practical view, 

 yet one should not, I think, attempt to 

 escape the evidence of one's experience, 

 the less so, indeed, the more intimately his 

 experience is related to practical affairs, 

 and in any case one should only strive 

 against exaggerated inference and extrava- 

 gant conclusion. 



I trust that the granting of my conten- 

 tion as to the severe and unpretentious 

 homeliness of science may not divest it in 

 your minds of a bloom which you deem 

 essential to your, interest in it; but how- 

 ever that may be, an understanding of 

 what I have to say demands that much 

 of you. 



