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A Plea for Pure Science . 
the applications of Science, the accumulation of wealth, are 
necessities which are a curse to those with high ideals, but 
a blessing to that portion of the world which has neither 
the ability nor the taste for higher pursuits. 
As the applications of Science multiply, living becomes 
easier, the wealth necessary for the purchase of apparatus 
can better be obtained, and the pursuit of other things 
besides the necessities of life becomes possible. 
But the moral qualities must also be cultivated in propor- 
tion to the wealth of the country, before much can be done 
in Pure Science. The successful sculptor or painter 
naturally attains to wealth through the legitimate work of 
his profession. The novelist, the poet, the musician, all 
have wealth before them as the end of a successful career. 
But the scientist and the mathematician have no such in- 
centive to work : they must earn their living by other pur- 
suits, usually teaching, and only devote their surplus time 
to the true pursuit of their science. And frequently, by the 
small salary which they receive, by the lack of instrumental 
and literary facilities, by the mental atmosphere in which 
they exist, and most of all, by their low ideals of life, they 
are led to devote their surplus time to Applied Science or to 
other means of increasing their fortune. How shall we, 
then, honour the few, the very few, who, in spite of all diffi- 
culties, have kept their eyes fixed on the goal, and have 
steadily worked for Pure Science, giving to the world a most 
precious donation, which has borne fruit in our greater 
knowledge of the universe and in the applications to our 
physical life which have enriched thousands and benefitted 
each one of us ? There are also those who have every 
facility for the pursuit of Science, who have an ample salary 
and every appliance for works, yet who devote themselves 
to commercial work, to testifying in courts of law, and to 
any other work to increase their present large income. Such 
men would be respectable if they gave up the name of 
professor, and took that of consulting chemists or physi- 
cists. And such men are needed in the community. But 
for a man to occupy the professor’s chair in a prominent 
college, and, by his energy and ability in the commercial 
applications of his science, stand before the local community 
in a prominent manner, and become the newspaper exponent 
of his science, is a disgrace both to him and his college. It 
is the death-blow to Science in that region. Call him by 
his proper name, and he becomes at once a useful member 
of the community. Put in his place a man who shall by 
precept and example cultivate his science, and how different 
