Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1899 (IA b24975941).pdf/24

 things that are; to know the constitution of the world and the operation of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of times; the alternation of the solstices and the changes of seasons; the circuit of years and the position of stars; the nature of living creatures and the ragings of wild beasts; the violence of winds and the thoughts of men; the diversities of plants and the virtues of roots."

The establishment of facts is now recognised to be of such importance that the highest scientific honours are rightly reserved for the disciplined worker who helps in ever so small a degree to increase the sum of the verities. No man of science thinks less highly of a discovery because its practical utility may not be apparent. Gene- ralisations can only be made after the accumulation of many facts, and the fortunate man who demon- strates some far-reaching law of nature must recognise that he owes his discovery to the patient disciplined workers who have made his generalisa- tion possible.

The great generalisations of modern times, such as the laws of gravity, the doctrine of evolution, and the correlation of the physical forces are asso- ciated with the names of Newton, Darwin, Joule, Grove, and others, but those famous men all re- cognised that the stones of which their edifices were built had been quarried, squared, and set by an army of workers without whom the genius of the architect could not be manifested.