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A Plea for Pure Science. 
[November, 
great and long race who has not been properly trained ; and 
it would be folly to attempt to win with one, however pure 
his blood and high his pedigree, without it. The problems 
we solve are more difficult than any race : the highest intel- 
lect cannot hope to succeed without proper preparation. 
The great prizes are reserved for the greatest efforts of the 
greatest intellects, who have kept their mental eye bright 
and flesh hard by constant exercise. Apparatus can be 
bought with money, talents may come to us at birth ; but 
our mental tools, our mathematics, our experimental ability, 
our knowledge of what others have done before us, all have 
to be obtained by work. The time is almost past, even in 
our own country, when third-rate men can find a place as 
teachers, because they are unfit for everything else. We 
wish to see brains and learning, combined with energy and 
immense working-power, in the professor’s chair ; but, above 
all, we wish to see that high and chivalrous spirit which 
causes one to pursue his idea in spite of all difficulties, — to 
work at the problems of Nature with the approval of his 
own conscience, and not of men before him. Let him fit 
himself for the struggle with all the weapons which mathe- 
matics and the experience of those gone before him can fur- 
nish, and let him enter the arena with the fixed and stern 
purpose to conquer. Let him not be contented to stand 
back with the crowd of mediocrity, but let him press forward 
for a front place in the strife. 
The whole universe is before us to study. The greatest 
labour of the greatest minds has only given us a few pearls ; 
and yet the limitless ocean, with its hidden depths filled 
with diamonds and precious stones, is before us. The pro- 
blem of the universe is yet unsolved, and the mystery 
involved in one single atom yet eludes us. The field of re- 
search only opens wider and wider as we advance, and our 
minds are lost in wonder and astonishment at the grandeur 
and beauty unfolded before us. Shall we help in this grand 
work, or not ? Shall our country do its share, or shall it 
still live in the almshouse of the world ? 
