1004 Editors’ Table. 
needs neither material nor apparatus. He supposes that he can 
make money and scientific discoveries at the same time, and so does 
not need food, clothing, nor shelter. Or if these essentials be pro- 
vided, he exacts such an amount of teaching from the unfortunate 
recipient, that scientific production is suppressed at its fountain- 
head. Yet these good people like to talk about the scientific pro- 
gress of the age, and of the benefits that it confers on mankind, 
Of course most of this comes from an ignorance of what great fields 
of knowledge remain yet unexplored, and an incapacity to under- 
stand what a change will be wrought in our thoughts and acts by 
the acquisition of that knowledge. The solution of the great mystery 
of the relations of mind to matter has no interest for them; or, if 
it has, carries with it no impress of utility. Perhaps some people 
of little faith fear the results of such knowledge, not reflecting that 
it is better to traverse the paths of life and death with one’s eyes 
open, rather than with them shut. 
The actual state of original research in America justifies the lan- 
guage of Secretary Goode. The number of positions available for the 
original investigator in the country is small, and many of these are 
occupied by incompetent persons who add little or nothing to scien- 
tificknowledge. Our so-called “Academies of Science”! have become 
lyceums, where little beyond popular display and instruction is 
attempted. It is true that most of these societies publish “ Proceed- 
ings,” ete., but whence the material to fill these publications with 
worthy matter is to come, they do not concern themselves. The 
perversion of these societies from their true object is inevitable, so 
long as they are compelled to elect members for financial reasons. 
After Academies of Science come the Universities. Here the 
same spirit presents the same obstacles to research. But little time 
is granted the professors in most of them, and in one case the posi- 
tion has been distinctly announced, that original research does the 
University no good. The philistinism is here fairly expressed, 
and the issue is made. Continental Europe is, however, against 
this modern barbarism, and progress can still find congenial climes. 
Germany still turns out her volumes rich with observation and 
thought, on a financial basis so small as to furnish little more than 
buttons and kid gloves for a fashionable American family. 
1 Except the U. S. National Academy. 
