210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



science. Nor can it be fairly said that this department is inferior in 

 dignity to the pursuit of abstract science, so called. It is out of the 

 ranks of the practical workers that those peculiarly gifted in scientific 

 investigation are likely to arise ; and it is in the ranks of practical 

 workers that they must look, chiefly, for appreciation and support. It 

 is no derogation from the value of a discovery of truth, to say that it 

 can be made useful to man ; and, hence, there is no inferiority in the 

 position of those who make it useful to man. 



Indeed, that which the whole world chiefly needs to-day, and our 

 country not less than any other, is the application of scientific truths 

 and principles already known to the affairs, and labors, and problems, 

 of daily life. We might even afford to pause in our career of fresh 

 discoveries, to consolidate the progress and utilize the results already 

 obtained. But the alternative is not presented ; it is not necessary or 

 best that any part of the intellectual activity of the age should pause ; 

 the advance of science itself assists, and is assisted by, the applications 

 of science. 



We need a scientific in the place of a barbarous or scholastic archi- 

 tecture ; a scientific in the place of a traditional agriculture ; a scientific 

 in the place of an empirical engineering ; we need more machinery, 

 more economical applicatians of power, more effective processes of 

 metallurgy and manufacture, more exact knowledge, in all these par- 

 ticulars, of our own condition and necessities, and of the degree in 

 which these can be supplied by experience already attained abroad. 

 Lesoinne, a distinguished French writer, defines metallurgy as " the 

 art of making money in the treatment of metals." This definition may 

 be applied to almost all occupations of life. The practical art of each 

 is not only to achieve certain results, but to do so profitably, to make 

 money in doing so ; that is to say, to increase the value of the raw 

 materials, whether wood, or cotton, or Ores, or time, or ideas, by the 

 use we make of them, and the transformation to which we submit 

 them, so as thereby to really elevate the condition of humanity : to 

 leave the world better than we found it. This is, in its last analysis, 

 the meaning of honestly making money. Men are put into this world 

 with limited powers and with limited time to provide for their own 

 sustenance and comfort, and to improve their condition. A certain 

 portion of these powers and this time is required for the support of 

 life in a greater or less degree of comfort, and with more or less mul- 

 tiplied means and avenues of enjoyment, activity, and influence. 

 Whatever their labor produces more than this, is represented by 

 wealth, and for purposes of exchange by money. To make money 

 honestly, is to do something for other men better or cheaper than they 

 can do it for themselves ; to save time and labor for them ; in a word, 

 to elevate their condition. It is in this sense, greatly as we Americans 

 are supposed to be devoted to making money, that we need to learn 

 how to make more money ; how to make our labor more fruitful ; how 



