232 



Physical Scie^ices. 



indirectly, through work done before the want was known, and from 

 materials collected, perchance, as the mere curious rubbish of men 

 who would delve in science, the world knew not why. 



Thus every physical science presents in itself perpetual proof that 

 the thought of man is ever ranging beyond it for new materials; that 

 it is itself only the perfected, organized product of past thought. 



We are re-stocking our rivers with fishes to the wonder of the peo- 

 ple as well as to their profit — sixteen millions of profit already reck- 

 oned in the Empire State: but we are doing it under the instruction 

 of those who studied the habits of fishes when legislatures saw noth- 

 ing but folly and waste in giving money for the study of "eels and 

 horn-pouts." We can do something to protect ourselves from the 

 insect hosts, but we do it mainly through the studies of those who 

 were content to bear the sneers of the " practical men " who saw 

 nothing but childish folly in studying bugs and butterflies." 



We can without pain endure the dentist's forceps or the surgeon's 

 knife; but this priceless boon to suffering humanity resulted from 

 experimenting with curious compounds that came into being through 

 love of science alone. Compounds of such wonderful powers were 

 not dreamed of till they appeared in answer to the chemist's constant 

 search, through love of his science. 



We rejoice that the world is reaping such rewards from the labor of 

 scientific men. But we would have the world remember, for its own 

 sake, the price which has been paid for its great scientific possessions. 

 We would have credit given to whom credit is due, not for any good 

 that can come to the laborers, most of whom are beyond the reach of all 

 earthly rewards, but for the good of the present and coming genera- 

 tions, that they may know the toilsome pathway along which the 

 builders of science have trod, and that they may also learn that the 

 real advance of science must evermore lie in a region beyond apparent 

 utility. We would have them realize the fact that science is the gift 

 of mind — not of mind simply crowded with facts, but of mind trained 

 to observe and compare, boldly pushing beyond the bounds that limit 

 the vision of those who see nothing but the practical utilities of 

 to-day. 



Modern science, then, is the thought of the past put into most 

 effective form for present use. As such it is a mighty magazine of 

 power. It is in the mental world even like the beds of coal as accu- 

 mulated force in the physical world. And by the diffusion of knowl- 

 edge every man may become armed with much of this accumulated 

 power — the accumulated thought of the past. This garnered power 

 of thought finds its full expression in our railroads and steamships, in 

 telegraphs and cotton mills, and in the wonderful transformations of 



