CLARENCE E. DUTTON—RELATION OF SCIENCE TO CIVILIZATION. 39 
world were measured by the contributions of these men it would be 
small;—not because their results would be of slight value, but because 
they would be comparatively few and infrequent. As it is, the greatest 
possible progress is secured by the division of labor, one class devoting 
their energies to the discovery of new knowledge, the other to the inven¬ 
tion of means for making it useful. 
To the world at large the inventor is best known and understood. 
He it is who first puts the fruits of science into the hands of the com¬ 
munity which consumes them. With him, or with his agent or assignee, 
the capitalist and promoter, the community reckons, paying in money 
the commercial value of his invention. Nor is his reward merely a pe¬ 
cuniary one. He is honored in his lifetime and often commemorated 
with tokens of public gratitude after his death. For his encouragement 
and reward laws are passed patenting to him the exclusive use or sale of 
the material benefits of his invention, and protecting him against infringe¬ 
ment. Nor are these rewards too great, nor is the appreciation too high. 
The material benefits of truly useful inventions are almost always far 
greater, as measured by any standard of commercial or utilitarian value, 
than any reward of this kind that can possibly accrue to the inventor. 
It is equally right and fitting that he should be honored and commemo¬ 
rated. 
The scientific discoverer on the other hand is further removed from 
the great mass of the community than the inventor. His results are sel¬ 
dom such as can be turned to immediate commercial profit. They are 
contributions to knowledge in general, without reference, so far as he is 
concerned, to their material utility or to their money value. How far 
his work may minister to human bodily wants, to human pleasures or 
passions, is to him a matter of no concern. The sole object and the final 
end of his pursuit is the increase of knowledge regardless of the use which 
may be made of it; the discovery of new truths and laws of nature, of 
new facts and principles, caring nothing for the value which others may 
place upon them. To him all truths are of equal value. For in his mind 
truth is at once manifold like the waves and also one, like the sea. In 
the system of the knowable universe every fact has its place like every 
stone in the wall; every truth is but a corollary or a lemma of some 
broader and more comprehensive truth. 
But it may be asked: Would it not be better if the energy of scien¬ 
tific discoverers were directed more to the investigation and discovery of 
new knowledge which would be available quickly for utilitarian pur¬ 
poses than to inquiry about facts and relations which offer no immediate 
prospect of being so utilized ? The answer is decidly, no. It is far bet¬ 
ter as it is. The question tacitly assumes that human foresight is as 
good as hindsight. The investigator has no more conception, in ad- 
