1883.] A Plea for Pure Science. 671 
total amount was about 5,000,000 dols. in one year, of which 
more than half is given to so-called colleges and universities. 
It would be very difficult to regulate these bequests so that 
they might be concentrated sufficiently to produce an imme- 
diate result. But the figures show that generosity is a 
prominent feature of the American people, and that the needs 
of the country only have to be appreciated to have the funds 
forthcoming. We must make the need of research and of 
Pure Science felt in the country. We must live such lives 
of pure devotion to our Science, that all shall see that we 
ask for money, not that we may live in indolent ease at the 
expense of charity, but that we may work for that which has 
advanced and will advance the world more than any other 
subject, both intellectually and physically. We must live 
such lives as to neutralise the influence of those who in high 
places have degraded their profession, or have given them- 
selves over to ease, and do nothing for the science which 
they represent. Let us do what we can with the present 
means at our disposal. There is not one of us who is 
situated ih the position best adapted to bring out all his 
powers, and to allow him to do most for his science. All 
have their difficulties, and I do not think that circumstances 
will ever radically change a man. If a man has the instinCt 
of research in him, it will always show itself in some form. 
But circumstances may direCt it into new paths, or may 
foster it so that what would otherwise have died as a bud 
now blossoms and ripens into the perfect fruit. 
Americans have shown no lack of invention in small 
things ; and the same spirit, when united to knowledge and 
love of Science, becomes the spirit of research. The tele- 
graph operator, with his limited knowledge of electricity and 
its laws, naturally turns his attention to the improvement of 
the only electrical instrument he knows anything about ; 
and his researches would be confined to the limited sphere 
of his knowledge, and to the simple laws with which he is 
acquainted. But as his knowledge increases, and the field 
broadens before him, as he studies the mathematical theory 
of the subject, and the eleCtro-magnetic theory of light loses 
the dim haze due to distance, and becomes his constant 
companion, the telegraph instrument becomes to him a toy, 
and his effort to discover something new becomes research 
in Pure Science. 
It is useless to attempt to advance Science until one has 
mastered the science ; he must step to the front before his 
blows can tell in the strife. Furthermore, I do not believe 
anybody can be thorough in any department of Science, 
