Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/604

598 wrong and the judgment of the public not to be trusted. Some praise may very well be given to the manufacturer and a great deal more to the inventor, for the work of each is essential to the good of the public; but, after all, the real honor is due the investigator who, by patient research and keenness of insight, discovered the laws that made possible the invention and its uses. Only let some genius discover electrical waves and in time there will be devised many systems of wireless telegraphy, or let the mysterious X-ray and how to produce it be revealed and soon there will be hundreds of clever devices for its practical use. And so it is through all the arts and all the sciences, where there is one to lead and discover there are many to follow and apply, and countless millions to enjoy. A Newton, a Darwin, a Pasteur, rarely is found, but wherever he may be there are, besides himself, many others who can and who do perform the necessary, but always secondary, function of turning his discoveries to every-day uses so that all mankind, as long thereafter as the race may last, can live more securely and more happily.

It is man's power of investigation and of discovery that enables him to bring the forces of nature to his aid, without which help he would perish wholly or at best live only as the beasts of the forest. It is science that makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, and this is basic, for by it we conquer in the struggle for existence. It is basic because self-preservation is everywhere and always the first law of nature, and because whatever else happens, and before any higher development is possible, our physical needs must be provided for.

The author fully concurs in every claim that can be made for the intellectual and the moral uplift due to the beautiful and the artistic, whether in literature, music, painting or any other form whatsoever in which they can find expression; but these are apart from his present discussion which concerns the knowledge of nature's laws and their application to human affairs. Neither is he unmindful of nor without appreciation for the great good, other than material, that follows in the wake of scientific study and investigation. He believes that the declaration: "The truth shall make you free," is as applicable and as necessary to things intellectual as to things spiritual; but he also holds that those truths of nature that aid in providing for our daily needs are just as effective as any others in freeing the human mind from the bondages of fear and of superstition, and that therefore only those truths that offer definite applications, and those essential to a better understanding of nature and a fuller control of her forces, are really worthy to be sought after patiently and diligently.

However, the possible usefulness of an investigation is a point to be considered, if ever at all, in determining what question to take up and how to attack it, for the scientific genius investigates, as the poet writes, along any line that appeals to him. In a sense he can not help it, for to him research and experiment are life and happiness; he is still