Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/36

32 But the fact remains, the value of science lies in its relation to human conduct. The value of knowledge lies in the use we can make of it. As each thought of the mind tends to work itself out in action, so does each accession of human knowledge find its end in fitting men to live saner and stronger lives. We may, therefore, rest content with the ideal of effectiveness. The American scholar is master of the situation. He can make things go, because-he understands them and because he understands himself. He does not shrink from that which appalsappalls [sic] the men of culture. He is adequate for that which bewilders the erudite. Judged by our best products, there is no finer man on earth than the college man of America, and in proportion, in the future, he will be wiser and more forceful than he is to-day.

In mechanics we know that the force of a moving body is not measured by its substance. Its momentum or effective power is found in its weight multiplied by its speed. This illustration has been used in praise of American science. The power of science lies not in individual erudition. It lies in its striking power. American science is dynamic, it is always under way. In every branch of science, the best American workers have been those most strenuous in their personal efforts, most eager to make their work useful to the world at large. In almost every branch of utilitarian science, America already stands in the lead. This fact England has already recognized with dignified dismay. We hear much of it now, we shall hear more of it still later, for quite as remarkable as the growth of American science is the advance of American schools. Whenever I visit a department of applied science in America, I see that it has doubled its power, its staff and its equipments since the time of my last visit. My visits are not very frequent, perhaps once* in five or ten years, let us say, but what will be the end of it? To double once in fifty years is a rare thing in the universities of the old world, but even that in a few centuries would accomplish wonders.

It is one of the laws of mathematics that a geometric progression will long outrun an arithmetical progression, whatever increases by doubling will far exceed the hulk of addition. American science and scientific schools increase by doubling, and will continue to do so. Hence we measure them not by their actual achievements, hut by the certainty id a greater future, far beyond the dreams of those who, like ourselves, must be numbered always with the pioneers. To lay the Inundation of science, the foundation of knowledge, the foundation of the future commonwealth of Colorado, is the work of the pioneer. Ours then is a glorious part, for the pioneer is a noble function indeed, but the actuality for the future will surpass the brightest dreams of to-day. Let us glance at some of the varied thoughts this enterprise suggests.

A hundred miles away at the foot of the same mountain range lies