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that natural phenomena are in themselves, and without reference to immediate utility, proper subjects of man's inquiry, and that all progress must be based on their thorough and accurate investigation.

The genesis of a new idea is so difficult, and the amount of work necessary for its complete elucidation and development so vast and detailed, that many eminent men, taking only a short period of time and not realizing the minute steps by which the advance of knowledge takes place, have been led to doubt the value of scientific investigation in the higher realms of pure knowledge, even to the extent of speaking of the bankruptcy of science. Others, again, perceiving the apparent aimlessness of many investigations and undervaluing the motive which urges them on, have come to look with a certain contempt upon the man of pure science and his slow and plodding progress. What is the good of all this work at unimportant details? What do you get out of it, and what pleasure do you find in it? they ask, and when they are told that the humble worker usually gets nothing out of his work except the pleasure of doing it, and that his motive is nothing more elevated than the satisfaction of his curiosity, there does appear to be, it must be admitted, some justification for the contemptuous indifference with which the poor researcher is regarded by a considerable section of the population, as is shown by the almost entire absence of support of pure scientific research on the part of the Government. With the exception of an annual grant of £4,000 a year given to the Royal Society, I think I am correct in stating that the Government affords hardly any support to science save to such as is concerned with teaching or with some practical problem; and when one remembers the composition of governments and the manner in which, and the reasons for which, they are chosen, one can not unreservedly blame them for this attitude. The best method of fostering research is a difficult problem, and I can well understand that a modern democratic government, depending as it does upon popular support, with its attendant popular mandates, should shrink from dealing with it. To do so would bring them no popularity and no votes, and too often they are not really aware of its immense importance to human progress, and when they are they have great difficulties to face.

For it is impossible to organize research on a commercial basis. "All attempts," says Professor Nichols, of Cornell, "at a machinemade science are doomed to failure. No autocratic organization is favorable to the development of the scientific spirit. No institution after the commercial models of to-day is likely to be generously fertile. You can contract for a bridge according to specifications. No one, however, can draw up specifications for a scientific discovery. No one can contract to deliver it on a specific day for a specified price, and no employee can be hired to produce it for wages received.” -SM 1909- 44

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This it is impossible to get the public to understand even when it has undergone the process which we call education. You may establish paid posts for scientific research, but you can not be sure that you will get research, for science is like the wind that bloweth where it listeth, and that is what our educated public do not like. They want something for their cash, and they will not wait.

Even those who are aware of the immense value of pure research forget the fact that the aptitude for scientific investigation is as rare as the gift of poetry, to which in many respects it is allied, for both are creative gifts, rare and precious. They forget that it is impossible to ascertain without trial whether a man possesses it or not, and that this trial can only be made when he has passed his student days and looks to support himself by his own exertions. To provide for this support money is needed, and studentships must be established in considerable numbers, from the holders of which those who show that they possess the gift of research can be selected and promoted to higher posts in which their gift can find full opportunity; but we want more than this-we want compensation for those whom we have encouraged to make the trial and who have failed to show that they possess the gift, and an outlet by which they can emerge and find work in practical life.

This has been and is a difficulty in all schools of science, for many are called but few are chosen. The situation is this: It is desirable that a large body of able young men should be encouraged to take up scientific research, but as experience has shown that only a small proportion of them will possess the qualities by which success in research can be attained, and as it is undesirable to encumber the progress and the literature of science by a host of workers who have no real capacity for research, it results that a time will arrive when a great proportion of those whom we have encouraged to give some of the best years of their life to this unremunerative work should be invited to find other occupations. What is to be done? We can not throw them into the street. Some compensation must be given. There are two ways in which this can be done. One is the system of prize fellowships, which has for long been in vogue at the old universities, and which it has of late been the custom of those who have not really studied the matter to decry. Nevertheless, it is a good system, for it provides an income by which those who have given some of the best years of their life to this trial of their capacity can support themselves while they qualify for taking part in a practical profession.

A prize fellowship system, or something like it, is a necessary accompaniment of a university which induces a large number of young men to follow for a time the intellectual life; it acts both as an inducement and a compensation, and it would be a mistake and an

injustice, in my opinion, to abolish it; but there is another way in which the difficulty can be met, and that is the way which has been adopted by the wise and farseeing founders of the Imperial College, namely, by the combination of a school of science with a school of technology. If you have incorporated in your school of science a school of applied science, and if you at the same time take care that none but able men are allowed to enter the research grade, and if you establish, as you must do if you honestly work your school, a connection with the great industrial interests of the country, you have all that is necessary for the disposal of those men who, for whatever reason, find themselves unable to follow a life of pure science. As is well known, the faculty for pure, apparently useless, research in science is often possessed by men without any aptitude for practical application of science or desire of practical success and the wealth which practical success brings, while, on the contrary, many minds of the highest order can not work at all without the stimulus of the thought of the practical outcome of their labor.

In our college there is room both for those with the highest gifts for pure scientific research and for those with the inventive faculty so important in the arts, or with the knowledge and ability for controlling and organizing great industrial enterprises; and, what is more, the combination of the two types of mind in the same school can not but be of the greatest advantage to both, not only on account of the atmosphere which will be created, so favorable to intellectual effort, but also because good must result from the contact in one school of minds whose ultimate aim is to probe the mysteries of nature and to acquire control over her forces.

As Professor Nichols has well said in pointing out the dependence of technology on science:

The history of technology shows that the essential condition under which useful applications are likely to originate is scientific productiveness. A country that has many investigators will have many inventors also. Where science is, there will its by-product technology be also. Communities having the most thorough fundamental knowledge of pure science will show the greatest output of really practical inventions. Peoples who get their knowledge at second hand must be content to follow. Where sound scientific conceptions are the common property of a nation, the wasteful efforts of the halfinformed will be least prevalent.

These are sound conclusions, and experience has shown that if the terms are interchanged the same remarks may be made with equal truth of the good influence which results to a school of science from its association with a school of technology.

Before concluding, it may be well to say a word as to the origin of the great imperial institution in the interests of which we are met here to-day. It may justly be described as the natural and necessary outcome of the scheme for scientific instruction which was originated

by that great Prince whose memorial stands near the end of Exhibition road, and to whom science and art in England owe so much. He dreamed a dream which his untimely death alone prevented him from realizing. Had he lived, who can set a bound to what he would have achieved for science and education in England? It is a most happy circumstance that the final stages of the realization of that dream should have been entered upon in the reign, and have received the sympathy, patronage, and active support of his great son, our most gracious King, who is working in so many directions for the welfare and happiness of our race.

There is one further point I must touch upon. In the few remarks which I have had the honor to make to you, I have endeavored, however imperfectly, to embody in words certain thoughts which bear upon a great subject. I thank you for the patience with which you have heard me. Whether I have produced the effect I desire I know not, but I know this, that even if I had the tongue of men and angels, no words of mine could have been so apt, so expressive as the magnificent deed of Mr. Otto Beit recorded in to-day's newspapers. It is impossible for me to pass this over in silence, so closely is it connected with the subject of my address. There are two ways of manifesting thought, by word and by action. Mr. Beit has chosen the latter and far more effective way. We can only express our respectful admiration and gratitude for his generosity, and our thankfulness that a man should exist among us with the power, the insight, and the true humanity to do such a splendid deed.

a It was announced in the Times of December 16, 1909, that Mr. Otto Beit had given the sum of £215,000 to establish a number of fellowships of the annual value of £250, the holders of which would devote themselves to medical research in all its branches.

INTELLECTUAL WORK AMONG THE BLIND."

By PIERRE VILLEY.

Scarcely two months have passed since the little world of the blind was en fête. They celebrated the centennary of the birth of Louis Braille, who is, among the blind, the object of great veneration and deep gratitude.. Blind himself from the age of 3 years, professor after 1828 at the Royal Institution for Blind Youth, where he was educated, he devoted his thoughts and his entire life to the amelioration of the lot of his unfortunate companions, and it is to him that they owe the method of reading and writing which is employed to-day throughout the whole world. His memory is not less cherished than that of Valentin Haüy. Although Haüy conceived the idea of instructing the blind, Louis Braille discovered the means by which this could be made to bear fruit."

Their united efforts have transformed the life of the blind. Before their time only a few blind persons who were in favorable circumstances succeeded in developing their faculties. To-day all are invited to take advantage of intellectual culture; all may lead a useful life in society. In spite of this transformation, the prejudice against blindness exists everywhere. It gives place but slowly. In nearly all minds the word "blind" always evokes the same pitiable and false image. The first inclination is to suppose that behind these sightless eyes, this lifeless countenance, everything is quiet-intelligence, will, sensations that all the faculties are torpid and, as it were, benumbed. Furthermore, habituated as are those who can see to do nothing without the use of their eyes, it is quite natural that it should appear to them that if they should lose their sight they would at once become incapable of any activity. It is not easy for them to imagine that the blind, deprived of the resources of sight, find in exchange,

Translated, by permission, from Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris) of March 15, 1909. The author, Mr. Villey, lost his sight when 4 years old.

Regarding Valentin Haüy, Louis Braille, and the Institution for Blind Youth, see the articles published by Maxime Du Camp in the numbers of the Revue des Deux Mondes for April 15, 1873, and March 1, 1884.

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