Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/127

Rh the study of the cholera, of the plague, of the sleeping sickness. The spirit of science is well illustrated by the gift to the Pasteur Institute by M. Osiris last summer of thirty millions of francs. He was led to do this by the fact that the director, Doctor Roux, having won a prize of one hundred thousand francs for the discovery of a diphtheria serum, though not a rich man, immediately turned it over to the institute. Feeling that a cause capable of producing such unselfishness must deserve support, M. Osiris made it this large bequest. Lord Rayleigh, in like manner, donated his Nobel prize of forty thousand dollars to the physical laboratory at Cambridge.

In closing, permit me to recommend the scientific career to young men as one of great satisfaction, whether one succeeds in it or not. To be even a soldier in this noble army, to feel oneself the follower of Faraday, of Helmholtz and of Maxwell, to push on the standard of truth, is worth more than to dress in purple and fine linen and to own many automobiles. There are in this country of eighty millions only about five thousand scientists. The country needs you, young men; it is a patriotic duty to put her where she should stand intellectually among the nations. Would that I might reach the rich, and sing to them the praises of this sort of service. In other lands the rich serve the state, why not here? Surpass your less fortunate brothers not in your pleasures, but in your achievements. And then the American college will be exempt from some of the criticism that it meets to-day. Finally let us bear in mind that while we admire the palaces of science like this, they are not necessary for the performance of good work, and that those of us who are obliged to work in less sumptuous abodes may be consoled with the reflection that most of the great discoveries in science were made with simple apparatus, in humble quarters, but by great men. It is the spirit that quickeneth. For the true scientific spirit may we ever pray, for the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.