PRODUCTIVE SCHOLARSHIP 599 



a boy who has never outgrown young life's curiosity and the joy of see- 

 ing new things, nor has he outgrown the stimulus of companionship, 

 the necessity for playmates. He obeys instinctively that best of advice 

 given and followed by Eowland of experimental fame : " Do something 

 to it, man, do something to it and something will happen," and there- 

 fore once his investigation is begun he seldom stops to consider of what 

 use the results may be ; nor is this often to be regretted since whatever 

 his discoveries, it is practically certain that some day they will have 

 many and unsuspected applications. It was Helmholtz who, to satisfy 

 his own apparently idle curiosity, determined why a cat's eye glows, or 

 as we say, looks green in the dark. But out of this investigation, which 

 to the practical man would appear utterly trivial and useless, came not 

 only knowledge that shattered certain superstitious fears, but even the 

 ophthalmoscope that every year helps to save the sight of thousands of 

 human beings. 



This beautiful illustration of the unsuspected results of scientific 

 work is scarcely more than typical, for however keen the zest of investi- 

 gation, however glorious the hour of discovery, these joys of the few are 

 as nothing in comparison with the sum total of the peace of intellectual 

 freedom and of the pleasures of physical comfort their labors provide 

 for the multitudes of every living nation and of all future generations. 

 And therefore it would seem that, of all people, those who, by their per- 

 sistent labors and by the keenness of their intellect, make the world more 

 fruitful and nature more the servant of man, would be honored and en- 

 couraged; that they would be sought after and put in those positions 

 that would enable them to do their work best, and where they could 

 exert the greatest influence upon others by inspiring as many as possible 

 to emulate their example. And indeed this in some measure is the 

 happy state of affairs in the cultured centers of the old world ; and it is 

 there that nearly all the power that comes of knowledge had its origin. 



That which makes human progress possible, that which has given 

 us our present civilization, and points the way to a higher, should com- 

 mand our unqualified admiration and our every encouragement. And 

 in so far as they depend upon our knowledge of the laws of the uni- 

 verse in which we are placed and from which we can not escape, in so 

 far as they depend upon our luxuries and upon the means of providing 

 our necessities, of protecting ourselves from plague and from pestilence 

 — in so far as they depend upon making the world more fruitful and 

 therefore the abode of a more numerous and happier people — so far as 

 civilization and progress depend upon all these things, just so far they 

 depend absolutely upon the labors of the creative scholar, upon the work 

 of the investigator, the seeker after and the discover of nature's truths 

 and nature's laws. It matters not how firmly the man of affairs estab- 

 lishes some new and important industry, nor how readily the public ac- 

 cepts what he has to offer, whether the convenience of modern lighting, 



