Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/716

698 of London, The Transactions of the Royal Society, the Journal of the Society of Arts, the Journal of the Horticultural Society of Loudon, the "Edinburgh Veterinary Review," the reports of the Royal Dublin Society, the "Philosophical Magazine," the "Agricultural Gazette," the "Chemical News," and in official reports and scattered pamphlets and newspaper letters.

Of the value of Sir John Lawes's work at Rothamstead as a whole, we find the judgments recorded in scientific reviews of its results, that "it is not to be equaled by that of any of the foreign stations; indeed, in several departments of investigation it might safely challenge comparison with their united efforts"; and that "he has obtained a larger body of facts in relation to manures and cropping, and the feeding of animals, than all the agricultural societies in the empire put together."

We also find some lessons suggested by it in the same reviews, the bearing of which seems to have escaped, the notice of the reviewers themselves, for they forthwith proceed to draw from them the opposite conclusions to the true one: "The whole is the work of the man himself. He has had no aid from the Government or any agricultural society, and no advice from any committee or public body." "Of the indebtedness of science to Mr. Lawes's unique and costly experiments we need not speak, the facts are so plain that they speak for themselves. Nor need we state the moral. The addition to the national wealth which has accrued from the discoveries made by Mr. Lawes is already enormous. It must be borne in mind that this benefit has arisen from accidental researches, for Mr. Lawes was not compelled to take them up, nor is he bound to continue them."

The secret of this great merit is also given; for while Mr. Lawes has not had an unqualified success, especially in drawing inferences from his facts, "his writings afford ample evidence of great earnestness of purpose. His manly, outspoken language shows that he loves truth for its own sake. He has had ample resources; and he has had the motive of self-interest, as well as love of knowledge, to stimulate him in his investigations."

In this splendid example, as in so many others, we have illustrated anew the fact that the best scientific results and the most important advances in discovery are the fruit of earnest individual work, prompted by love of the pursuit and carried on in a spirit of self-reliance; that investigation can and will make its own paths and find its way to its own ends, and be more vigorous and active for the effort; and that the time has not yet come when, in Anglo-Saxon countries, science has so declined that it must be coddled by official patronage.