September 23, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



387 



eries which he makes, but the result of his 

 having sordid ends in view would be to 

 narrow the field of his efforts, and exercise 

 a depressing effect upon his activities. It 

 is impossible to know what application 

 knowledge may have until after it is ac- 

 quired, and the seeker after purely useful 

 knowledge will fail to acquire any real 

 knowledge whatever. 



We have here the explanation of the 

 well-known fact that the functions of the 

 investigator of the laws of nature, and of 

 the inventor who applies these laws to utili- 

 tarian purposes are rarely xmited in the 

 same person. If the one conspicuous ex- 

 ception which the past century presents to 

 this rule is not unique, we should probably 

 have to go back to Watt to find another. 

 The true man of science of to-day and of 

 all past time has no such expression in his 

 vocabulary as useful knowledge. His do- 

 main is the whole of nature, and were he 

 to attempt its division into the useful and 

 the useless, he would drop from his high 

 estate. 



It is, therefore, clear that the primary 

 agent in the movement which has elevated 

 man to the masterful position he now oc- 

 cupies is the scientific investigator. He it 

 is whose work has deprived plague and 

 pestilence of their terrors, alleviated human 

 suffering, girdled the earth with the electric 

 wire, bound the continent with the iron 

 way, and made neighbors of the most dis- 

 tant nations. As the first agent which 

 has made possible this meeting of his rep- 

 resentatives, let his evolution be this day 

 our worthy theme. 



It has been said that the scientific in- 

 vestigator is a new species of the human 

 race. If this designation is applicable to 

 a class defined only by its functions, then it 

 is eminently appropriate. But the biolo- 

 gist may object to it on the ground that a 

 species, or even a variety, is the product 

 of heredity, and propagates only or mainly 



its own kind. The evolutionist may join 

 hands with him on the ground that only 

 new faculties, not new modes of activity, 

 are to be regarded as products of evolution, 

 but let us not stop to dispute about words. 

 We have no need of the term 'species' in 

 our present course of thought ; but to deny 

 the term evolution to the genesis of pre- 

 viously non-existent forms of intellectual 

 activity is to narrow our conception of the 

 course of nature, and draw a line of de- 

 markation where no tangible boundary 

 exists. 



I am the more ready to invite your atten- 

 tion to the evolution of the scientific in- 

 vestigator, not only because the subject is 

 closely correlated with human evolution in 

 general, but because it is one branch of 

 evolution which seems to me not to have 

 received due prominence in discussions of 

 the subject. 



In our time we think of the process of 

 development in nature as one going con- 

 tinuously forward through the combina- 

 tion of the opposite processes of evolution 

 and dissolution. The tendency of our 

 thought has been in the direction of banish- 

 ing cataclysms to the theological limbo, 

 and viewing nature as a sleepless plodder, 

 endowed with infinite patience, waiting 

 through long ages for results. I do not 

 contest the truth of the principle of con- 

 tinuity on which this view is based. But 

 it fails to make known to us the whole 

 truth. The building of a ship from the 

 time that her keel is laid until she is making 

 her way across the ocean is a slow and 

 gradual process ; yet there is a cataclysmic 

 epoch in her history, opening up a new era 

 in her existence. It is the moment when, 

 after lying for months or years a dead, 

 inert, immovable mass, she is suddenly en- 

 dowed with the power of motion and, as if 

 imbued with life, glides into the stream, 

 soon to begin a career of restless activity, 

 of which the only bounds are those of the 



