A January Pi92im" }        An  Epoch-Making  Discovery.  27 
AN  EPOCH  MAKING  DISCOVERY. 
By  Charles  H.  La  Wall,  Ph.M., 
PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
It  is  bromidic  to  quote  the  oft  repeated  proverb  about  the 
prophet  and  his  own  country,  and  yet  none  other  is  applicable  to 
the  situation  in  which  Einstein  finds  himself  in  Germany  while 
much  of  the  remaining  scientific  world  is  doing  him  homage  and 
discussing  his  work  on  "The  Special  and  General  Theory  of  Rel- 
ativity." 
This  is  an  age  of  pragmatism  and  while  the  educational  attain- 
ments of  the  average  individual  are  higher  than  ever  before  in  the 
world's  history,  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  there  is  much  sympathy 
with,  or  consideration  of,  abstract  principles  as  a  rule,  except  among 
mathematicians  and  physicists. 
From  the  earliest  times  there  have  been  those  who  went  out  of 
their  way  to  grapple  with  the  unknown,  whether  or  not  the  rewards 
were  apparent.  Babylonian  arithmeticians  and  Egyptian  geometers 
had  exercised  their  mathematical  abilities  chiefly  along  the  lines  of 
mensuration,  with  some  attention  to  astronomy,  but  when  the 
speculators  of  Hellenic  Origin  appeared,  abstract  mathematics  be- 
came a  cult  which  lasted  for  several  centuries  and  which  influenced 
human  thought  for  all  time.  Thales,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Euclid, 
iVristotle  and  Ptolemy,  were  little  concerned  with  the  practical 
applications  of  their  theories,  yet  they  paved  the  way  for  Copernicus, 
Descartes,  Galileo  and  Newton,  who  came  many  centuries  later. 
The  pupil  of  Euclid  who  asked  "What  do  I  get  for  learning 
these  things?"  typified  a  state  of  mind  common  to  all  ages,  and 
probably  approaching  its  highest  peak  in  our  own  time,  as  indicated 
by  the  general  apathy  with  regard  to  the  underpaid  members  of  the 
teaching  profession,  and  the  attitude  of  the  average  school  pupil  or 
college  student  who  aims  not  at  perfection  in  his  work  but  sets 
his  goal  at  the  minimum  passing  grade. 
In  Francis  Bacon's  classification  of  human  knowledge  (1630) 
speculative  Philosophy  occupied  a  larger  proportion  of  the  diagram- 
matic scheme  than  would  be  accorded  it  by  one  who  attempted  a 
similar  outline  today,  and  yet  the  worker  in  pure  research,  or  the 
one  who  discovers  and  records  an  abstract  scientific  principle,  may 
be  conferring  upon  future  generations  blessings  incalculable. 
