Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/742

 726 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

preciation and certain necessary incidental expenses, the annual cost of a first-class battleship would probably reach to three times the university grant ; for a first-class battleship costs about a mil- lion sterling to build, and is not effective for much more than a decade; and the addition of each one to the fleet necessitates for its full efficiency an increase of dockyard and harbor accom- modation, the cost of which, if it were known, would probably be found to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. A final illustration : An eminent astronomer, who had spent a long life alternately in the observatory and as professor in university class- rooms, recently retired. That his salary had been little more than the earnings of a successful artisan need be no ground of reproach to the good scientist; but the rigid application of official regula- tion, framed for a somewhat dissimilar purpose, resulted in the allocation of a pension which was entirely insufficient to pro- vide for the few and simple wants of the aged astronomer in his retirement. Representations were made to the central govern- ment and a complacent officialdom awarded an increase of the pension at the amount and rate of two shillings and sixpence per week!

If we assume that at present there is no science, but sciences unclassified, and therefore ungeneralized it would seem to fol- low that there is no scientific ideal, but only scientific ideals un- harmonized ; and no scientific policy, but only scientific policies uncoordinated. The scientific party or what would be the scientific party if there was a common doctrine to give it cohesion is broken up into disparate groups, most of which do not speak each other's language. For instance, the mathematician and the physiologist are separated from each other by a wide arc in the circle of the sciences; but they have this in common that each holds it an article of faith that he would fall short of his scientific duty if he did not acquire the language of France, Germany, and Italy, as well as of England. But if it should happen that here and there a mathematician or physiologist takes the pains of learn- ing the language of comparative ethics, folklore, economics, or any other sociological field, he will be held by his brother-mathemati-