utilitarian ends in view in the pursuit of their researches. If it
seems that in neglecting such ends they were leaving undone the
most important part of their work, let us remember that Nature
turns a forbidding face to those who pay her court with the hope
of gain, and is responsive only to those suitors whose love for
her is pure and undefiled. Not only is the special genius required
in the investigator not that generally best adapted to applying
the discoveries which he makes, but the result of his having
sordid ends in view would be to narrow the field of his efforts,
and exercise a depressing effect upon his activities. The true man
of science has no such expression in his vocabulary as "useful
knowledge." His domain is as wide as nature itself, and he best
fulfils his mission when he leaves to others the task of applying
the knowledge he gives to the world.

We have here the explanation of the well-known fact that the
functions of the investigator of the laws of nature, and of the
inventor who applies these laws to utilitarian purposes, are
rarely united in the same person. If the one conspicuous exception
which the past century presents to this rule is not unique, we
should probably have to go back to Watt to find another.

From this view-point it is clear that the primary agent in the
movement which has elevated man to the masterful position he now
occupies is the scientific investigator. He it is whose work has
deprived plague and pestilence of their terrors, alleviated human
suffering, girdled the earth with the electric wire, bound the
continent with the iron way, and made neighbors of the most
distant nations. As the first agent which has made possible this
meeting of his representatives, let his evolution be this day our