Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/524

508 convince the world that the study of Nature is one of the most noble of pursuits; that there are other things worthy of the attention of mankind besides the pursuit of wealth. He must push forward and do what he can, according to his ability, to further the progress of his science.

Thus does the university, from its physical laboratory, send forth into the world the trained physicist to advance his science and to carry to other colleges and technical schools his enthusiasm and knowledge. Thus the whole country is educated in the subject, and others are taught to devote their lives to its pursuit, while some make the applications to the ordinary pursuits of life that are appreciated by all.

But, for myself, I value in a scientific mind most of all that love of truth, that care in its pursuit, and that humility of mind which make the possibility of error always present more than any other quality. This is the mind which has built up modern science to its present perfection, which has laid one stone upon the other with such care that it to-day offers to the world the most complete monument to human reason. This is the mind which is destined to govern the world in the future, and to solve problems pertaining to politics and humanity as well as to inanimate nature.

It is the only mind which appreciates the imperfections of the human reason, and is thus careful to guard against them. It is the only mind that values the truth as it should be valued, and ignores all personal feeling in its pursuit. And this is the mind the physical laboratory is built to cultivate.



HE terræ incognitæ are not always the most distant lands. The greater part of France, outside of Paris, is an unknown country to the greater number even of traveled Americans; and of the little-known features of that pleasant land its abundant mineral springs are among the least known. No country in Europe is so rich in mineral springs: six hundred and fifty are enumerated in a single treatise (Le Pileur's), and designated as "among the best-known springs"; while the number of different establishments, probably about two hundred, is greater than that of any other country.

Ask, now, the first neighbor you meet, this question, which I have sometimes asked, "What French mineral springs do you know by name?" Unless he is an old traveler in Europe, and sometimes even if he be an old traveler, you will not get a very long answer—"Vichy, of course; and—and—yes, Aix-les-Bains." "And any others?" you continue. The usual answer will be either "No," or "Plombières."