Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/182

172 pure science has been and is cultivated, and where the study of nature is considered a noble pursuit. But such countries are rare, and those who wish to pursue pure science in our own country must be prepared to face public opinion in a manner which requires much moral courage. They must be prepared to be looked down upon by every successful inventor whose shallow mind imagines that the only pursuit of mankind is wealth, and that he who obtains most has best succeeded in this world. Everybody can comprehend a million of money; but how few can comprehend any advance in scientific theory, especially in its more abstruse portions! And this, I believe, is one of the causes of the small number of persons who have ever devoted themselves to work of the higher order in any human pursuit. Man is a gregarious animal, and depends very much, for his happiness, on the sympathy of those around him; and it is rare to find one with the courage to pursue his own ideals in spite of his surroundings. In times past, men were more isolated than at present, and each came in contact with a fewer number of people. Hence that time constitutes the period when the great sculptures, paintings and poems were produced. Each man's mind was comparatively free to follow its own ideals, and the results were the great and unique works of the ancient masters. To-day the railroad and the telegraph, the books and newspapers, have united each individual man with the rest of the world: instead of his mind being an individual, a thing apart by itself, and unique, it has become so influenced by the outer world, and so dependent upon it, that it has lost its originality to a great extent. The man who in times past would naturally have been in the lowest depths of poverty, mentally and physically, to-day measures tape behind a counter, and with lordly air advises the naturally born genius how he may best bring his outward appearance down to a level with his own. A new idea he never had, but he can at least cover his mental nakedness with ideas imbibed from others. So the genius of the past soon perceives that his higher ideas are too high to be appreciated by the world: his mind is clipped down to the standard form; every natural offshoot upward is repressed, until the man is no higher than his fellows. Hence the world, through the abundance of its intercourse, is reduced to a level. What was formerly a grand and magnificent landscape, with mountains ascending above the clouds, and depths whose gloom we cannot now appreciate, has become serene and peaceful. The depths have been filled, and the heights levelled, and the wavy harvests and smoky factories cover the landscape.

As far as the average man is concerned, the change is for the better. The. average life of man is far pleasanter, and his mental condition better than before. But we miss the vigor imparted by the mountains, We are tired of mediocrity, the curse of our country. We are tired of