Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/605

Rh a boy who has never outgrown young life's curiosity and the joy of seeing new things, nor has he outgrown the stimulus of companionship, the necessity for playmates. He obeys instinctively that best of advice given and followed by Rowland of experimental fame: "Do something to it, man, do something to it and something will happen," and therefore once his investigation is begun he seldom stops to consider of what use the results may be; nor is this often to be regretted since whatever his discoveries, it is practically certain that some day they will have many and unsuspected applications. It was Helmholtz who, to satisfy his own apparently idle curiosity, determined why a cat's eye glows, or as we say, looks green in the dark. But out of this investigation, which to the practical man would appear utterly trivial and useless, came not only knowledge that shattered certain superstitious fears, but even the ophthalmoscope that every year helps to save the sight of thousands of human beings.

This beautiful illustration of the unsuspected results of scientific work is scarcely more than typical, for however keen the zest of investigation, however glorious the hour of discovery, these joys of the few are as nothing in comparison with the sum total of the peace of intellectual freedom and of the pleasures of physical comfort their labors provide for the multitudes of every living nation and of all future generations. And therefore it would seem that, of all people, those who, by their persistent labors and by the keenness of their intellect, make the world more fruitful and nature more the servant of man, would be honored and encouraged; that they would be sought after and put in those positions that would enable them to do their work best, and where they could exert the greatest influence upon others by inspiring as many as possible to emulate their example. And indeed this in some measure is the happy state of affairs in the cultured centers of the old world; and it is there that nearly all the power that comes of knowledge had its origin.

That which makes human progress possible, that which has given us our present civilization, and points the way to a higher, should command our unqualified admiration and our every encouragement. And in so far as they depend upon our knowledge of the laws of the universe in which we are placed and from which we can not escape, in so far as they depend upon our luxuries and upon the means of providing our necessities, of protecting ourselves from plague and from pestilence —in so far as they depend upon making the world more fruitful and therefore the abode of a more numerous and happier people—so far as civilization and progress depend upon all these things, just so far they depend absolutely upon the labors of the creative scholar, upon the work of the investigator, the seeker after and the discover of nature's truths and nature's laws. It matters not how firmly the man of affairs establishes some new and important industry, nor how readily the public accepts what he has to offer, whether the convenience of modern lighting,