The scientific basis of national progress: including that of morality

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University of California.

67, BROAD STREET, BIRMINGHAM.

Presentation Copy to

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THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS

OF

NATIONAL PROGRESS,

INCLUDING THAT OF MORALITY.

Author of " The Art of Scientific Discovery ;"
The Principles and Practice of Electro-deposition ;"
" The Art of Electro-metallurgy ;" 6°<r.

fr o R WAtt'oP^''

NATIONS ADVANCE BY NEW KNOWLEDGE.

WILLIAMS AND NOR GATE,

14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON

AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.

1882.

To the President (the Rev. N. Watson, F.R.S.), the
Vice Presidents, the Council and Members of the Bir-
mingham Philosophical Society, I dedicate the following
small treatise, in appreciation of the fact, that although only
a young Society, they have certified in a substantial manner
the views persistently advocated by me respecting the
National importance of Scientific Investigation, and have
shown so intelligent an example of devotion to public
welfare by establishing a Fund for the Endowment of
original Scientific Research.

GEORGE GORE.

The Institute of Scientific Research,
Birmingham.

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF NATIONAL PROGRESS,

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF MATERIAL PROGRESS i

CHAPTER II.
THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF MENTAL AND MORAL PROGRESS 83

CHAPTER III.

NEW TRUTH, AND ITS GENERAL RELATION TO HUMAN

PROGRESS ... .'. 157

CHAPTER IV.
THE PROMOTION OF ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ... 170

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF NATIONAL PROGRESS.

NEW KNOWLEDGE IMPARTS NEW POWER.

PREFACE.

As there exists at the present time in this country a con-
siderable degree of uneasiness in the public mind respecting
our ability to maintain our position in the race of progress,
and as our future success as a nation depends largely upon
science, it is desirable to call attention to the great public
importance of new scientific knowledge, and to the means of
promoting its development.

Although the illustrations given in this book of the im-
portance of such knowledge to mankind, constitute but a
small fraction of the number which might be adduced, they
are sufficient to show that by the neglect of scientific investi-
gation, we are sacrificing our welfare as a nation to an
enormous extent.

The greatest obstacle to the discovery of new knowledge
in this country, lies in a wide spread ignorance of the de-
pendence of human welfare upon scientific research. I
propose therefore to show in a brief manner, that the
essential starting-point of human progress, lies in scientific
discovery ; also that new truths are evolved by original re-
search made in accordance with scientific methods ; and to
illustrate these statements by examples ; also to point out
how such research can be encouraged.

Preface.

The book is divided into four chapters, viz. : \st. The
Scientific basis of Material progress : 2nd. The Scientific
basis of Mental and Moral progress : $rd. New truth and its
relation to Human progress : and ^th. The Promotion of
original Scientific Research. As the object of the book is
only to call attention to the vast importance of new truth, as
as a fundamental source of advance, and how to promote the
discovery of it, the essay is written as briefly as possible, and
is not offered in any sense as a complete exposition of the
subject, especially the section i elating to the Scientific basis
of Morality.

The leading idea of the Book is that present knowledge
only enables us to maintain our present state, that national
progress is the result of neiv ideas, and that the chief source
of new ideas is original research.* That as advance has its
origin in new knowledge ; unless new discoveries are made,
new inventions and improvements must sooner or later cease.
Another prominent idea is, that truth is essentially the same
in all divisions of knowledge, and that the mental powers
and processes employed in detecting it are the same in all
subjects.

For reasons stated in the text, the influence of scientific
discovery upon mental and moral progress are treated
together. Notwithstanding the far greater importance of
the mental and moral advantages of new truths, the book
treats chiefly of the pecuniary and material gains to man-
kind ; mainly because the latter are more easily understood
and appreciated, the chapter however on " The Scientific
Basis of Mental and Moral progress," indicates in a very
brief and imperfect manner, the vast importance of new
scientific knowledge to mankind, as a source of mental and
moral advancement.

* See p.p. 165 to 167.

Preface.

The chief object 0f this book is to disseminate more
correct ideas respecting the importance of new positive
knowledge, and the duties of society in relation to it ; and
a further object is to assist in maintaining Birmingham in
the front rank of intellectual, social and moral advance, in
accordance with its motto "Forward."

CHAPTER I.

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF MATERIAL PROGRESS.

DURING the last one hundred years this nation
has advanced with unexampled speed. More wealth
has been accumulated by Englishmen since the
commencement of the present century, than in all
preceding time since the period of Julius Caesar;
one of the causes of this has been the discovery of
new truths of science, and their subservience to
useful purposes by means of invention. The great
manufacturing success of this country has been
largely due to those applications of science, which
have enabled us to utilise our abundant stores of
coal and iron-ore, in steam engines, machinery, and
a multitude of mechanical, physical, and chemical
processes; also to the discovery of electro-magnetism
and its application in the electric-telegraph, etc.
And had it not been for these and other adaptations
of scientific knowledge, we should have competed in
vain with the cheaper labour and longer days of toil
of continental nations. Other great causes, such as
our insular position, suitable climate, freedom, geo-

2 Source of new scientific knowledge.

graphical position, etc., etc. have, however, also
contributed to the result. Commerce also in its
turn has done vast things for mankind.

The purely scientific knowledge we possess was
discovered almost entirely by means of original
research, and to only a small extent by persons
engaged in industrial occupations. Probably not
two per cent, of all the important discoveries in
pure science were made in manufactories ; the
scientific experiments which are made in such estab-
lishments are usually of the nature of invention,
not of discovery, and are not often published,
because it is a usual object with men of business to
retain as much as possible of the pecuniary benefit
of their labours to themselves. Whilst it is the
object of a business man to monopolise special
knowledge; that of the scientific man is to diffuse it,
in order that all mankind may be benefited and
helped to improve.

Discoveries in science are, however, occasionally
made by practical men engaged in technical employ-
ments. The hydro-electric machine originated in
this way, a man at Newcastle was attending to a
steam boiler, and found that he received electric
shocks when he touched the boiler. This circum-
stance was investigated by his employer, Mr.
Armstrong, a scientific man, and led him to con-
struct the hydro-electric machine. The accumulation
of electricity in submarine telegraph cables was first
(observed at the Gutta-Percha Company's works

Conditions under which discoveries are made. 3

London. It was noticed on testing a cable by
means of a voltaic battery (the cable being sub-
merged in water) that discharges of electricity
flowed from the cable after the battery was removed ;
this circumstance was investigated by Faraday, and
led to improvements in submarine telegraphy. In
each of these instances the same general method as
that used by scientific discoverers was however
employed, viz., new experiments were made (though
not intentionally) by putting matter and its forces
under new conditions, and new results were
observed.

Nearly all great modern scientific discoveries have
been made by teachers of science and others, who
spend a large portion of their lives in experimental
investigation, searching for new truths, and not by
persons who have hit upon them by accident. The
greatest discoveries in physics and chemistry in
modern times, were made chiefly' by such men as
Newton, Cavendish, Scheele, Priestley, Oersted,
Volta, Davy and Faraday : all great workers in
science.

It is either by observing matter and its forces
under new conditions or from a new aspect, that
nearly all discoveries are made; thus Priestley
placed some oxide of mercury in an inverted glass
vessel, and heated it by means of the Sun's rays and
a lens, and discovered Oxygen. This substance was
nearly discovered by Eck de Sulsbach three hundred
years before ; he heated six pounds of an amalgam

4 How discoveries are made.

of silver and mercury, and converted the latter metal
into a red oxide like cinnabar, and he remarked, " a
spirit is united with the metal, and what proves it
is this, that this artificial cinnabar submitted to
distillation, disengages that spirit." The " spirit"
was evidently oxygen.

Some discoveries are made by observing the phe-
nomena of bodies placed under special conditions by
those operations of nature over which we have little
or no control. All our knowledge of Astronomy,
and much of that of geology and physiology, was
acquired in this way.

Nearly all modern discoveries of importance in
physics or chemistry require long and difficult inves-
tigations to be made in order to completely establish
their truth. When Crookes discovered Thallium,
he saw the first sign of its existence in a momentary
flash of green light in a spectroscope, but he had to
expend upon the subject several years of most diffi-
cult labour, and a considerable sum of money, in
order to prove the correctness of his suspicion that
he had discovered a new metal. M. Lecocq de
Boisbaudran discovered the metal Gallium and
Bunsen discovered Rubidium and Caesium in a
similar manner.

Discoveries in science, are usually made, not by
trying to obtain some valuable commercial or tech-
nical result, but by making new, reliable, and
systematic investigations. By investigating the
chemical action of electricity upon saline bodies.

Proper motives in research. 5

Sir Humphrey Davy isolated sodium and magne-
sium, which has led to the establishment at Patri-
croft near Manchester, of the manufactures of those
metals. By the abstract researches of Hofmann
and others upon Coal-tar, many new compounds
were discovered, and the extremely profitable
manufacture of the splendid coal-tar dyes was
originated.

Scientific discovery is the most valuable in its
ultimate practical results when it is pursued from a
love of truth as the ruling motive, and any attempt
to make it more directly and quickly remunerative
by trying to direct it to immediately practical
objects, decreases the importance of its results,
diminishes the spirit of inquiry, and sooner or later
reduces it to the character of invention. The
greatest practical realities of this age had their origin
in a search after important truths entirely irrespec-
tive of what utilities they might lead to.

I do not intend by these remarks to imply that
any new trades or improvements in manufactures
have been or can be effected without the labours of
inventors and practical men, but that there should
be a more judicious division of labour : one man to
discover new truths, another to put them into the
form of practical inventions, and the business man
to work them ; because it is proved by experience,
that in nearly all cases these different kinds of labour
require men of widely different habits of mind, and

6 Scientific researches in manufactories.

that the faculties of discovery, invention, and prac-
tical working are very rarely united in one man.

Scientific investigations however, made in a manu-
factory, for the purpose of ascertaining the various
sources of loss of materials, the circumstances which
affect the amount or quality of the product ; or made
with the object of substituting cheaper or more
suitable materials, or for varying their proportions,
or for many other kindred objects, have in many
cases resulted in great benefit to the manufacturer,
and have formed the basis of successful patents.
Some of the large brewers, chemical manufacturers,
candle companies, and many others, constantly
employ scientific men in this way to examine their
materials, processes and products, and keep them
acquainted with the progress of discovery and
invention in relation to their own particular trades.
No art or manufacture is so perfect as to be
exempt from the influence of discovery and inven-
tion, and no man can produce so perfect an article
but that, by the aid of science, a better may be
produced. Science and trade are mutually depen-

(- dent, without the assistance of science, trade would
be unable to supply our daily increasing wants, and
without the pecuniary support of trade, science
would languish and decay.

" As long as arts and manufactures are left to be
directed and improved by simple experience, their
progress is extremely slow, but directly scientific

/ knowledge is successfully applied to them, they

Difference between Science and Art. 7

bound forward with astonishing speed." Look at
the art of taking portraits ; for hundreds of years
it remained entirely in the hands of oil and water-
colour painters with but little progress in rapidity of
production, but directly science was applied to it in
the form of photography, its advance in this respect
became amazing. Fifty years ago photography was
almost unknown, but immediately Messrs. Daguerre
and Talbot, in 1844, made known their processes,
the new art began to advance, and so rapid has been
its progress, that at the present time many thousand
persons are employed in its exercise, and millions
of portraits have been taken with an accuracy and
at a cost quite beyond the reach of the old method.

Many persons hardly know the difference between
science and art ; a still greater number cannot
readily distinguish between a concrete science and a
pure one ; and nearly all persons confound discovery
with invention. A science may be conveniently
denned as a collection of facts and general prin-
ciples which are to be learned ; an art as a collection
of rules which are to be followed : — Art therefore is
applied science ; and every art also has a basis in
science, whether that basis has been discovered or
not. Scientific principles underlie not only manu-
facturing processes, but also sculpture, music, poetry
and painting.

Discoveries differ also from inventions : a scientific
discovery is a newly found truth in science, which
in the great majority of cases is not in the form of

8 Difference between Discovery and Invention.

applied knowledge. An invention is usually a com-
bination and application to some desired purpose, of
scientific truths which have been previously dis-
covered. When Oersted first observed a magnetic
needle move by means of a current of electricity,
he made a scientific discovery ; but when Wheat-
stone and Cooke applied Oersted's discovery in their
telegraph from Paddington to Slough, they made
an invention. The success of the electro-plating
process was dependent upon knowledge previously
discovered. Mr. Wright, a surgeon in Birmingham,
was led to the invention of the use of cyanide of
potassium in electro-plating and gilding, by reading
in Scheele's "Chemical Essay" (p.p. 405 and 406),
that "if after these calces" (i.e.t the cyanides of gold
and silver) "have been precipitated, a sufficient
quantity of precipitating liquor be added, in order
to redissolve them, the solution remains clear in the
open air, and in this state the serial acid " (i.e.,
carbonic acid of the air) "-does not reprecipitate the
metallic calx."

Immediately a discovery is effected it is made
public, and is afterwards incorporated in the
ordinary text books of science, ready for the use of
inventors ; and in this way such books have become
filled with valuable knowledge acquired by researches
in past times. All this knowledge (which has cost
millions of pounds and a vast amount of intellect
and labour) has been given by its discoverers freely
to the nation. Some idea of the number of scientific

Dependence of Invention upon Discovery. g

researches which have been made since the year
1800, may be obtained from the fact, that a mere
list of their titles, with the names of the authors,
occupies eight large quarto volumes, of about one
thousand pages each, compiled and published at a
cost of about ten thousand pounds, by the British
Government and the Royal Society.

In discovery we search for new phenomena, their
causes and relations ; in invention we seek to pro-
duce new effects, or to produce known effects in an
improved manner. The objects of the scientific
discoverer are, new truth and greater accuracy ;
whereas those of the inventor, are increased useful-
ness and economy of results. The ancients classed
inventors with the gods, because they considered
them great benefactors to the human race. Dis-
coverers may properly be viewed as priests and
prophets of truth, because they both reveal new
knowledge to mankind, and predict with certainty
coming events.

A man cannot usually invent an improvement
unless he possesses scientific knowledge, and, for
that knowledge he must in nearly all cases resort to
a scientific book or teacher. The great practical
value of new scientific knowledge is proved by the
fact, that when scientific discoveries are -published,
there are numerous inventors and practical men,
who immediately endeavour to apply them to useful
purposes. Since the first application of coal-tar to
the production of dyes, every discovery in that

io Experiments often affect all mankind.

branch of chemistry has been closely watched for a
similar purpose.

A complete account of the growth and develop-
ment of scientific discoveries and inventions would
form an extensive history, and would include
numerous instances of experiments attended by
results which, sooner or later, affected all mankind.
Take that of phosphorus, for example. The first
evidence of the existence of that substance was
obtained by the Saracens in the eighth century.
Achild Bechil distilled a powdered mixture of char-
coal, clay, lime, and dried extract of urine, and
obtained a substance which shone in the dark " like
a good moon ; " that substance was phosphorus.
The discovery contained in the results of that little
dirty and stinking experiment was the germ or seed
of all the subsequent developments and applications
of phosphorus. About the year 1669 Bechil's
experiment was further developed by Brandt, a
merchant of Hamburg, and the publication of the
wonderful properties of the substance produced a
great sensation in his fellow-citizens. " There was
then cried nothing but triumph and victory among
the chymists. Those good people erected already
in their thoughts so many hospitals and poor-houses
that no beggar should more molest any man in the
streets, made great legacies, and pious causes, and
what not else." " Besides, the other alchymists did
encourage him yet more, and desisted not to make
him believe how this was the same fiery ghost of

The discovery of Phosphorus. u

Moses that in the beginning moved upon the water,
yea, his splendid shining face : the fiery pillar in the
desert, that secret fire of the altar wherewith Moses
burned the golden calf before he strewed it upon the
fire and made it potable."

The experiment of Brandt was repeated by Kun-
ckel before the courts of Saxony and Brandenburg,
although it was not a very delicate or agreeable
exhibition, " because the anctuous and daubing
oyliness was not yet accurately separated from it,
and without doubt it was very stinking." Brandt's
process was further developed by Boyle, and pub-
lished in the Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society, in the year 1692-3 ; 'and phosphorus
was afterwards obtained in larger quantity and in a
purer state by Hanckwitz, a chemist in Southampton
Street, Strand, and sold by him at three pounds
sterling per ounce. Its price at present is less than
three shillings per pound.

Margraaf, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and Dr. Slare
also extended our knowwledge of the substance ;
Gahn, in 1769, made the important discovery of
phosphorus in bones, and Scheele immediately
devised the process now in use by our manufacturers
for extracting it from that substance. The com-
mencement of the use of phosphorus for the purpose
of getting a light occurred about the year 1803, but
it was not until the year 1833 that the invention of
phosphorus matches became commercially successful.
The use of such matches is now universal, and it has

12 Origin of Electric-telegraphs.

been estimated that the daily consumption of them
in Great Britain alone amounts to two hundred and
fifty millions, or more than eight matches per day
for each individual in the kingdom.

" There is nothing on the Earth so small that it
may not produce great things." The most abstract
and apparently trivial experiments in original re-
r search have in some cases led to inventions and
\ results of national and even world-wide importance.
The contractions of a frog's leg in the experiments
of Galvani, and the movements of a magnetic needle
in those of Oersted, have already led to the expen-
diture of hundreds of millions of pounds in laying
telegraph wires all over the earth, and to an immense
extension of international intercourse. But the
original experiment of Oersted was not discovered
without labour, it was only arrived at after many
years of research.

The saying that "all great things have had small
beginnings," is true, not only of electric telegraphs,
but also of the great trade of electro-plating, and of
the magneto-electric machine which is now largely
used instead of the voltaic battery. After Volta had
made his small and apparently unimportant experi-
ments on the electricity produced by metals and
liquids, various persons tried the effect of that
electricity upon metallic solutions. Brugnatelli, in
/"i8o5, found that two silver medals became gilded in
a solution of gold by passing the electricity through
them. Mr, Henry Bessemer, in 1834, c°ated various

Origin of Dynamo-electric machines. 13

lead ornaments with copper by using a solution of
copper in a similar manner. And in 1836 Mr.
De la Rue found that copies might be taken in
copper of engraved copper-plates by the electro-
depositing process. Faraday discovered magneto-
electricity in the year 1831, by rotating a disc of
copper between the poles of a magnet, and he has
stated that the first successful result he obtained was
so small that he could hardly detect it. This simple
experiment was the origin of the magneto-electric \
machine, and many of these machines are now used •
for producing the electric light, and for depositing
nickel, copper, silver, and gold, instead of by the
voltaic battery. These, and other engines, thermic,
magnetic, electric, &c., will probably, ere long, be
constructed on as large a scale, and as many in
number, as the present steam engine.

The discovery in olden times of the attractive
properties of a fragment of iron ore, was the basis ,
of the invention of the mariner's compass, which
greatly improved navigation, and led to nearly all
the chief maritime discoveries which have since been
made. The sciences of magnetism and geometry^
form the basis of the art of navigation, and haveA
thus made our great foreign commerce possible../
The discovery of magnetism enabled sailing vessels
to venture freely out of sight of land, and to traverse
the wide ocean with even greater safety than to sail
'near the shore. By its means Columbus crossed the N
Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. By its

14 Results of the discovery of Magnetism.

means also, Vasco de Gama sailed round the Cape
of Good Hope and discovered a new route to India ;
and in the year 1500, another Portuguese Captain,
Cabral, was driven across the Atlantic, discovered
Brazil, and was enabled by the aid of the magnet,
to send back a ship to Lisbon with news of the
discovery. By its assistance also Magellan dis-
covered Patagonia and the South Pacific Ocean ;
and by the completion of that voyage the Earth
was first circumnavigated and proved to be a globe.

The geographical discoveries of the Portuguese,
made by means of the magnet, produced great
national results ; they profoundly changed the
balance of power and wealth among European
nations, by changing the direction of navigation
and of the great streams of commerce between
Europe and the East. They gave a mortal blow to
Italy and the cities of the Mediterranean, by trans-
ferring Eastern commerce to Spain and Portugal :
and Egypt ceased to be the greatest route of
commerce from Europe to India.

A singular contract relating to geographical
research was made in the fifteenth century, between
King Alphonso, of Portugal, and Ferdinand Gomez,
of Lisbon, by which the latter engaged to navigate
a ship and explore the coast of Africa, and to dis-
cover not less than three hundred miles of coast
every year, the measurement to be made from Sierra
Leone,

Discovery, as an agent of civilization. 15

Scientific discovery has in all ages been a most \
powerful agent of civilization and human progress.
The discovery of the black liquid which a solution
of nutgalls produces when mixed with green vitriol,
led to the invention of writing ink ; and a knowledge
of the properties of ink and paper prepared the way
for the invention of printing, by means of which
truth and learning have spread all over the earth.

The apparently insignificant property possessed
by amber, of attracting feathers immediately after it
has been rubbed, was known twenty-four hundred
years ago, and afterwards led to the discovery of
electricity. In later times, Dr. Franklin, by means
of a kite, charged a bottle with lightning, examined
it, and proved lightning and electricity to be iden-
tical. This knowledge, joined to the further
discovery, that electricity would pass freely through
metals, led to the modern invention of the lightning
conductor, by means of which all our great buildings,
ships, lighthouses, arsenals, and powder magazines
are protected from lightning.

"Coming events cast their shadows before them:"
the discovery of the instant transmission of electricity
along wires by Stephen Gray and Wheeler, about
the year 1729, fore-shadowed the invention of the
electric telegraph. About the year 1819, Oersted,
a Danish philosopher, after fifteen years of study
and experiment, to ascertain the relation of electricity
to magnetism, discovered that if a freely suspended
magnetic needle was supported parallel and near to

1 6 Original research a source of new industries.

a wire, and an electric current then passed through
the wire, the needle moved and placed itself at right
angles to the current. This discovery, coupled with
the previous one of the electric conductivity of
metals, formed the indispensable basis of all our
electric telegraphs.

Original research is very productive of new indus-
tries and inventions. The discoveries made by
Volta, Faraday, and many other investigators, have
led to the process of electro-plating, the use of
electric lights for lighthouses, and for ocean steam-
ships, and the great system of telegraphs. Those of
Davy, Wedgwood, and others, respecting the action
of light upon salts of silver, have resulted in the
modern processes of photography, which are now in
use almost everywhere. The discovery of zinc, by
Paracelsus, has been followed by the use of that
metal in galvanic batteries, and the great use of
" galvanized " iron for telegraph wires, for roofing,
and many other purposes. The discovery of nickel,
by Cronstedt, has led to the great modern use of
that metal in electro-plating, and to that of German
silver in the construction of electro-plated and other
articles. The discovery of chlorine, by Scheele,
' formed the basis of nearly all our modern processes
i of bleaching cotton and other fabrics. The discovery
of gun-cotton and nitro-glycerine has led to the use
of those substances in blasting rocks and in warfare.
The discovery of oxygen, by Priestley, has enabled
us to understand and improve in a great number of

Inventions resulting from discoveries. 17

ways the numerous manufacturing, agricultural, and
other processes in which that substance operates.
Priestley made many experiments also on the absorp-
tion of gases by water, and proposed the resulting
liquids as beverages ; and those apparently trifling
experiments have since expanded into the large
manufactures of aerated waters. The discoveries of
gutta-percha and india-rubber were indispensible to
the great applications of those substances in tele-
graph cables, and in a multitude of useful articles.
The discovery of chloroform and anaesthetics has led
to their use for the purpose of alleviating human
suffering. The discovery, by Sir Isaac Newton, of
the decomposition of light by means of a prism, has
led in recent times to the invention of the spectro-
scope; to the use of that instrument in the Bessemer
• steel process ; to the discovery of a number of new
metals, thallium, rubidium, caesium, indium, and
several others, and to the most wonderful discovery
of the composition of the Sun and distant heavenly
bodies.

Even the invention of the steam-engine was partly
a consequence of previous researches made by scien-
tific discoverers. Watt, himself, stated in his pam-
phlet, entitled "A plain Story," that he could not
have perfected his engine had not Dr. Black and
others previously discovered what amount of heat/
was rendered latent by the conversion of water into
steam. " Each mechanical advance in the steam-
engine has been preceded by and the result of the

i8 Manufactures, &c., due to discovery.

discovery of some physical law or property of steam."
" The first step in the invention of the steam-engine
was the experimental research and the discoveries of
the properties of steam by Hooke, Boyle, and
Papin."* Had not the steam-engine been developed,
it is clear that railways, steamships, machinery, and
all the other numerous uses to which that instrument
is now applied, would have been almost unknown.
The introduction of the steam-engine enabled aban-
doned Cornish mines to be relieved of water, and to
be worked to much greater depths. The discoveries
of nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, oil of vitriol, and
washing soda, by the alchemists and early chemists
in their researches, led to the erection of the
numerous great manufactories of those substances
which now exist in England and in other civilized
countries. There is probably not an art, manufacture,
or process, which is not largely due to scientific dis-
covery, and if we trace them back to their source
we nearly always find them originate in scientific
research.

So far has scientific discovery, and its practical
applications to human benefit by invention, now
progressed, that every one considers this to be, par
excellence, the scientific age. And as discovery and
invention continue to progress with accelerated speed,
we are encouraged to hope, not only that scientific
principles will ultimately be universally recognised as

* Essays and Addresses, Owen's College, 1874, pp. 172-182.

'

Arts developed by simple experience. ig

the regulators of all technical industry, but also as
a fundamental basis of morality.*

" It is true that some processes of manufacture have
not been consequences of abstract scientific discovery
— that they originally resulted from alterations made
in the rudest appliances, and that they have been
directed and improved by the results of simple
experience. For ages past we derived the benefit of
scientific principles without a knowledge of their
existence. We trod in the beaten paths of experi-
ence ignorant of the truth that we were acting in
unison with fixed and certain laws. Numerous arts
and processes were in extensive operation long before
the principles involved in them were at all under-
stood. The arts of enamelling and of iron smelting
were known hundreds of years before we were
acquainted with the principles of chemistry. In
some rare instances also the recorded results of daily
experience in practical matters, tabulated and
studied, have ultimately led to the discovery of
scientific laws ; but all this is merely the making
use of our ordinary experience for the advancement
of knowledge, instead of making special experiments
for the purpose."

.Many of our processes and manufactures, those of
glass and copper for example, are of such great anti-
quity, it is impossible to ascertain with certainty the
special circumstances under which they originated;
but after we have fully considered the ways in which

* See Chapter 2, Section B.

2o Origin of German-silver manufacture.

various modern trades and manufactures have first
arisen, we shall come to the conclusion that all
manufactures and improvements in manufacturing
processes, must have been first produced by the
same general means, viz., new observations, although
the special circumstances connected with the origin
of each were different.

Let us consider German-silver and its manufacture.
That substance is an alloy of copper, zinc, and
nickel ; it owes its peculiar whiteness or " silver-like"
appearance to the latter metal, and cannot be made
without it ; it is certain, therefore, that by whatever
means that metal or the alloy was discovered, the
discovery was the origin of the German-silver manu-
facture, and was essential to all manufactures, pro-
cesses, or appliances in which German-silver, nickel,
or any of its compounds are used. Nickel was
discovered by Cronstedt during the year 1751, and
its compounds were chiefly investigated by English
and foreign chemists. Cronstedt found it as a
peculiar metal in the mineral called kupfernickel,
whilst chemically examining the properties of that
substance. The general method by which he dis-
covered it was careful experiment, observation, and
study of the properties of matter.

It is stated that the Chinese and other nations
made alloys of nickel long before nickel itself was
known to be a distinct metal ; they had found, by
experiment, that when ores of copper and zinc were
mixed with a particular kind of mineral and smelted,

Development of Phosphorus match manufacture. 21

a white alloy was obtained ; but this also proves the
general statement already made, that the German-
silver manufacture was originated by means of new
observations. It was by a more skilful, but similar
mode of procedure that Cronstedt isolated the metal
itself, and thus laid a definite basis of improvements
in the manufacture of its alloys.

No art is probably more antique, or remained
longer exempt from the influence of science, than
that of match making and obtaining a light. Many
adult persons can remember the primitive and old-
fashioned tinder-box, which had passed, with its
flint and steel, from one generation to another with-
out any material improvement. Phosphorus, it is
true, was definitely discovered at least as early as
the year 1669, but it was not applied to match
making till about 1833. Since then the progress of
invention has been so rapid that there are now
numerous manufactories which produce many millions
per day of phosphorus matches ; for instance, those
of M. Pollak, at Vienna, and of M. Fiirth, in
Bohemia, consume together more than 20 tons of
phosphorus annually, and give employment to about
6,000 persons, and as one pound of phosphorus
suffices for about one million German matches (or
600,000 English ones), those two makers alone pro-
duce the astonishing number of 44,800 millions of
matches yearly.

Judging by means of the experience already
acquired, we cannot reasonably expect that dis-

22 Imperfections of our present processes.

coveries fraught with such momentous consequences
as those of magnetism or of galvanism and electro-
magnetism, will be made very often. The progress
of scientific discovery is gradual ; we have at present
but mere glimpses of the new world of truth which
is being revealed to us by means of research ; we
are only at the very commencement of a knowledge
of the inherent properties of matter and its forces,
and consequently the methods we employ to utilize
them are extremely imperfect. Matter has a general
property of subdividing and transmuting forces ; if
we apply one force to a substance or machine, it
produces many effects, not only those we want, but
those also we do not want ; when we heat a piece of
iron, the heat produces a number of changes,
mechanical, electric, magnetic, and chemical, and
it is partly by means of what is termed the "internal
resistance " of bodies that these effects are produced,
and we know but little of that property. The ex-
plosive action in a gas engine produces not only the
mechanical force we desire, but also a quantity of
heat we do not want, and at a cost of a portion of
the gas. In a similar manner, in the steam-engine
the largest portion of the heat of the coal is con-
verted into forces which are lost; a large amount
of it is uselessly expended in warming the
machine itself and the surrounding atmosphere ;
much also is lost by friction.

tThat "knowledge is power" is an old maxim, but
hat new knowledge is new power is a new maxim

NEW knowledge is NEW power. 23

which scientific discovery has impressed upon us.
By means of discoveries we have acquired new
powers ; by those of electricity we have acquired
the ability of conversing with each other at unlimited
distances, and by means of those in optics we are
enabled to analyse the composition, and perceive
some of the physical changes of the most distant
heavenly bodies. As our ignorance is probably
much greater than our knowledge, more inventions
also, and extensions of human power, must ulti-
mately result from discovering new qualities of
bodies, than by applying to useful purposes their
already known properties.

Experience in science has already shown that it is
by means of invention based upon new discoveries
that the greatest utilities are obtained, rather than
by the exercise of invention upon knowledge acquired
long ago. The information obtained by research in
former times has been largely exhausted for the
purposes of invention by modern inventors, and what
we very greatly require now is new knowledge.
Experience in science also leads us to believe that
the extent of possible discovery is as boundless as
Nature, and that an immense amount of new know-
ledge may yet be discovered. Every discoverer of
repute could supply a copious list of investigations
yet to be made.

An infinite number of questions in pure science
remain to be decided by means of research. Is
Electricity decomposible like radiant heat or light ?

24 Incompleteness of our present knowledge.

Are the " elementary substances " really compound
bodies ? Are they all compounds of Hydrogen ? Are
they all decomposed by very high temperatures, as
compound substances are "disassociated" by less
elevated temperatures ? Under what conditions is
Fluorine isolated ? Do gases transmit heat by
conduction ? Under what circumstances is Light
converted into Electricity ? and into Magnetism ?
What is the actual size of an atom of Hydrogen ?
Does Light (without heat) expand bodies ? What is
the actual molecular arrangement of the atoms of
Hydrogen at 60 Fahrenheit ? What is the cause of
the absence of metalloids in the Sun ? What are
the properties of Fluorine ? What is the vapour
density of Caesium ? Under what circumstances is
heat wholly converted into mechanical power ? &c., &c.
All these discoveries when made, will probably,
sooner or later, be productive of practical benefits
to mankind.

Nearly ever manufacturer in this country is
deriving, from scientific discoveries, advantages for
which there has been little or no payment made to
the discoverers. The makers of coal-tar-dyes, and
dyers of wool and silk, are using Mitscher-
lich's discovery of nitro-benzine. Manufacturers of
picric acid and " French purple" have enjoyed the
fruits of the labours of Dr. Stenhouse. Makers of
chlorate of potash and cyanide of potassium are
profiting largely by the discoveries of Scheele, Gay-
Lussac, and others. All the percussion cap makers

Advantages of discovery to Manufacturers. 25

are indebted to Howard and Brugnatelli for fulmi-
nating silver. Railway-contractors, quarry-pro-
prietors, and others, use nitre-glycerine discovered
by Sobrero. Iron smelters are benefiting by the
discovery of Bunsen, that 42 per cent, of the heat of
the fuel was lost as combustible gases — these gases
are now utilized. Telegraphists and electro-platers
are also indebted to him for his voltaic battery. The
producers of metallic magnesium owe the origin of
their process to him as being the first to convert it
into wire and make known its great light giving
power. Multitudes of persons now use his well-
known "Bunsen's burner" for heating, cooking, and
other operations. The various telegraph companies,
copper smelters, and makers of copper telegraph
wire, are using Dr. Matthiessen's discovery of the
influence of impurities on the electric conducting
power of copper. Phosphorus-makers are reaping
the reward of the labours of Gahn and Scheele. The
makers of electro-plate and German silver are
deriving profits from the labours of Faraday, who
investigated electrolysis ; of Gay Lussac, who dis-
covered cyanogen ; and of Cronstedt, who discovered
nickel. Makers of Bessemer steel enjoy advantages
derived from the spectrum discoveries of Kirchoff.
Iron and copper smelters, metallurgists in general,
dyers, calico printers, bleachers, brewers, makers of
vinegar, red lead, varnishes, colours, soaps, green vit-
riol, phosphorus, oil-of-vitriol, and many others, are
deriving benefit from the discoveries of Priestley and

26 Advantages of discovery to Birmingham.

Scheele. .Physicians and their patients are receiving
the reward of the labours of Soubeiran, Liebig, and
Dumas, in the discovery of chloroform ; of the
researches of Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Pelletier, and
others, in the discovery of quinine ; and of many
other chemists who discovered numerous remedial
substances. By means of the discoveries of Oer-
sted and others, embodied in the telegraph, manu-
facturers are enabled to anticipate the state of the
markets and of the weather, and editors are enabled
to obtain the earliest news.

Suppose that Gay Lussac, in 1815, had not dis-
covered cyanide of potassium, and that it had never
been discovered, it is highly probable that the manu-
facturing returns of Birmingham and Sheffield would
be much less in amount at the present time than
they are, simply because there is no other known
substance with which the electro-plating of base
metals with gold and silver can be satisfactorily
effected. Or suppose that sal-ammoniac, chloride
of zinc, or other soldering agents had not been dis-
covered, the extensive and so-called "galvanizing"
process could not have been effected, because without
those substances the iron articles immersed in the
melted zinc would not have received an adhesive
metallic coating.

On the other hand, science has in various cases
rendered obsolete some manufactures and superseded
old customs, comforts and conveniences. We have
ceased, or almost so, to use tinder-boxes, snuffers,

Pecuniary benefits arising from Science. 27

sulphur matches, rush-lights, tallow candles, sedan
chairs, stage coaches, the ancient water-bucket and
well, and even the comparatively modern pump ;
coal fires also are gradually being superseded by fires
of gas, and articles formed of solid silver are now
being replaced by those of electro-plate ; canals
have also to some extent been supplanted by rail-
ways. But in all these cases science has supplied us
either with something better or more suited to our
present wants.

The great pecuniary benefits arising from the
applications of science are generally reaped in the
first instance by the great manufacturers, agricul-
turists, merchants, and capitalists. Countless for-
tunes have been made by means of processes and
manufactures based upon scientific discovery. The
pecuniary benefits of calico printing, bleaching, dye-
ing; of the great manufactures of cotton, iron,
pottery, beer, sugar, glass, spirits, vinegar, gutta-
percha, india-rubber, gun cotton, the numerous
metals, machinery, electro-plate, washing soda,
German silver, brass, phosphorus, manures, the
common acids, numerous chemicals, and a multitude
of other substances and articles, have been extremely
great. More than eighteen hundred million pounds
of sulphuric acid alone are manufactured in Europe
yearly. The pecuniary advantages of the use of the
electric telegraph and railways to merchants, the
gains of capitalists by monies invested in railways,
telegraphs, steam-ships, cotton-mills, gas-works,

28 Magnitude of our railway system.

iron shipbuilding, engineering, and other great
applications of science, have been enormous. The
annual gas rental of London alone amounts to more
than two millions sterling ; and even in Birmingham
the produce of gas is more than twenty-five hundred
millions of cubic feet yearly. The amount of capital
expended in the construction of railways only in this
country, has been estimated at more than seven
hundred millions of pounds, and the total receipts
upon British railways has reached forty-three mil-
lions per annum. In the year 1875 our railways
carried 200 million tons of goods, and consumed ten
million tons of coal ; the Great Northern Railway
alone consumes 5,000 tons of coal each week. In
the year 1877 there existed in the entire world about
198,000 miles of railway, the whole having been
constructed since the year 1825. In the year 1880
six hundred millions of journeys were made by pas-
sengers on British railways ; and the stock of those
railways included 13,174 locomotives ; 369,694 wag-
gons, 28,717 passenger carriages, and 22,712 other
vehicles. The London and North-Western Railway
Company alone possessed, in the year 1873, no less
than 1,900 locomotive engines, each of a value of
nearly two thousand pounds; 4,000 carriages and
36,000 waggons ; and it has been estimated by com-
petent authorities, that there are in the world
200,000 steam-engines, having a total power of
twelve million horses, or 100 million men. The
number of cotton spindles on the whole Earth is ,

Coal, a great source of our wealth. 29

estimated at about 71^ millions. In the United
States of America there are about five thousand
telegraph stations, and 75,000 miles of line, which
transmit yearly about 11,500,000 messages. — The
telegrams of Great Britain number about one-
fourth of a million per week. The world's telegrams
during the year 1877 numbered nearly 130 millions ;
and the world's letters about 3,300 millions, or 9^
millions each day. Even the little phosphorus match
is being manufactured and consumed at a rate
estimated at more than ten thousand millions
daily.

Much of the wealth of this country, resulting from
science, has been very easily obtained by its pos-
sessors. That acquired by means of our coal has
especially been obtained without commensurate effort.
The amount of that substance raised in Great Britain
during the year 1876 was 734 millions of tons. To
draw upon a great stock of that mineral is like
drawing money from a bank, because coal, unlike
any other abundant substance (except wood and
petroline), contains in itself an immense store of
energy, which is evolved as heat during combustion,
and may be utilized. Each piece of coal contains
sufficient energy to lift its own weight twenty-three
hundred miles, but it costs only a small proportion of
that power to extract and raise it from the mine. I
do not mean by these remarks to imply that the
wealth accruing from this great store of power in
coal is derived chiefly by the owners of coal mines.

30 Evil effects of our undue love of money.

This acquisition of wealth without commensurate
sacrifice is 'not an unqualified advantage ; it con-
stitutes a debt to nature^ which upon the great
principle of causation, and of equivalency of action
and reaction, must sooner or later be repaid. Judging
from the infallibility of the action of those laws, and
the signs of the times, this nation is now beginning
to repay in the form of emigration of trade to other
lands, and of relatively less rapid national advance,
the debt incurred by undue pecuniary success. An
excess of money or power obtained without equivalent
effort, fails to properly develop the intelligence of its
possessors, and nations have been hastened to ruin
in this way. Our great success in getting money has
attracted many from the pursuit of knowledge, and
our love of knowledge has not increased as fast as
our wealth. The wealth of the upper classes has,
by decoying from study undisciplined young men at
our old Universities, kept down the general standard
of scientific instruction throughout the country, and,
by leading to neglect of scientific research, is now
retarding our progress in arts, manufactures, com-
merce, and civilization. The consequent relative
poverty of the working classes is also producing
similar effects by retarding education, and contri-
buting towards the great deficiencv of skilled labour,
of which our inventors, manufacturers, and others so
strongly complain in the working of their scientific
processes. Had a just share of the great amount of
money, gained by the application of science to useful

Discovery enriches the possessors of land. 31

purposes, been applied to the payment and main-
tenance of scientific discoverers and inventors, as it
should have been, the general standard of scientific
education would have been higher, the poor would
have had more employment and money, and the
happiness and civilization of all would have been
greater.

In a usual way the greatest pecuniary benefits,
arising from science, sooner or later go to enrich the
possessors of land. The demand created for coal,
iron, lime, building-stone, and all the metals, by the
industrial applications of science, has greatly in-
creased the value of land under which those sub-
stances lie. The value of cultivated land has been
everywhere increased by the discoveries of agricul-
tural chemistry. Land has also been required for
railways in nearly all parts of the kingdom, and has
thereby been considerably raised in value. Dis-
coveries produce inventions, inventions give rise to
processes and manufactures, the employment of
workmen and others, and the erection of workshops
and dwellings, and these have rapidly increased the
value of building ground. In Lancashire the value of
such ground has been greatly increased by the inven-
tions of the steam-engine and machinery, the dis-
covery of chlorine, and their application to cotton
manufacture. In all the great manufacturing districts,
and in all the chief centres of industry, a similar
result has occurred. Wherever a railway has been
constructed, the value of land has also increased in

32 Increased value of land due to discovery.

consequence of the increased facilities of communi-
cation. All these great additions to the value of
land are largely due to the unpaid labours of scien-
tific discoverers, and it may be said that this nation
has largely gained its wealth, and is still living in a
great degree on the products of those labours.
Those great additions to the value of land are also
permanent, are continually increasing, and are
largely independent of any exertions on the part of
the owners. That many other influences, besides
that of science, have contributed to the development
of our manufacturing and commercial prosperity is
also true, but it would be foreign to the subject of
the present chapter to point them out.

It is a fallacious argument to say that scientific
discovery and increased value of land are only
remotely connected together, a cause as certainly
produces its effect, however many connections lie
between them, provided the connections are certain
— the number of links in a chain makes no differ-
ence in the transmission of motion from one
end of it to the other. Great causes are frequently
distant and wide-spread in their effects. Persons
in general ean easily understand that an acorn
planted in the ground will in the course of
time become an oak, because it is a palpable and
visible effect ; but they cannot so readily perceive
that the benefits resulting from a knowledge of
science ramify through all our manufacturing, artistic,
and commercial occupations, our social and moral

Advantages of Science to workmen. 33

relations, and our every-day life, not because the
dependence of our welfare upon science is less real,
but partly because the connection between the two is
less understood.

Not only has science benefited manufacturers, but
also operatives, because the extension of science to
manufacturing purposes has compelled them to make
themselves acquainted with intellectual subjects.
"Instead of remaining mere machines, mechanically
performing the work set before them, they are
obliged to exercise the faculties of observation and
judgment in watching the results and directing the
action of mechanical, physical, and chemical powers.
Instead of following the blind path of experience,
using unknown forces to accomplish some definite
result, they pursue their labours with the aid of
known and certain laws." It is true that in many
cases artisans who have acquired a little knowledge
of science have thereby been rendered conceited and
unfit for their special employment, and this has
made many manufacturers object to technical scien-
tific education for their servants ; but this would not
be so much the case if scientific knowledge were
more generally and equally diffused. Arguments are
not unfrequently adduced to support the opinion
that ignorance has its advantages; but, however
great the advantages of ignorance may be, those of
knowledge are greater.

In consequence of the labours of scientific dis- \
coverers and inventors, the progress of science is

34 Science abbreviates labour.

such that in a very few years a knowledge of it will
be indispensible to all persons engaged in superin-
tending or carrying out manufacturing operations >
and in all arts, occupations and appointments in
which man is dealing with matter. Science is fast
penetrating into all our manufactures and occupa-
tions, and "those who are unscientific will have
much less employment and will be left behind in the
race of life." England also will be compelled, by
the necessities of human progress and the advance
of foreign intellect, to determine and recognize the
proper value of scientific research as a basis of
progress. National superiority can only be main-
tained by being first in the race, and not by buying
inventions of other nations.

The philosophy of matter is the foundation of all
manufacturing arts and artistic processes ; technical
education, or the relation of science to manu-
factures, &c., can only be properly imparted upon
the basis of a sufficient knowledge of theoretical
science. Science tends to abbreviate mental and
bodily labour. The use of our reason saves us the
labour of using our senses, because it enables us to
know that under certain conditions a certain effect
must occur. The use of our reason and senses also
saves us using our hands.

The properties of a single substance are so
numerous that if a workman was to thoroughly
study the whole of them, he would become a scien-
tific authority in the subjects of heat, light, electricity

Advantages of Science to mechanics. 35

magnetism, and chemistry. A blacksmith who knew
all the physical and chemical properties and rela-
tions of iron and steel would be quite a scientific
philosopher.

No man has more occasion to bless the introduc-
tion of the steam-engine, machinery, the galvanic
battery, and science in general, than the working
mechanic, because it has mitigated his physical toil
by giving him the duty of simply directing the labour
instead of actually performing it ; whilst it has
deprived him of one kind of employment it has
provided him with something better. But a few
years ago the operatives in the silver-plating trade
had to lay the silver on the articles with their hands,
with the aid of a soldering iron ; now they have
simply to set their batteries in action and watch the
electricity doing it for them. In a similar manner
the working engineer at his metal-turning lathe has
merely to direct the action of his tools whilst the
steam-engine performs the heavy labour of turning.

There is not a man in this kingdom who has not
derived some advantage, in one way or another, from
scientific research. The advantages of gas light,
electric light, rapid postal service and transmission
of goods, railway travelling, steam-ships for naviga-
tion, cotton apparel, photography, cheap pottery,
improved medicine and surgery, telegraphic forecasts
of weather, Australian preserved meats, &c., &c.,
have been reaped more or less by everyone, even the
very paupers. Not only has travelling been con-

36 Public advantages of Science.

siderably cheapened and immensely increased, but
also rendered more safe : — in travelling by diligence in
France the average number of persons injured was
i to every 30,000 carried; and killed, i in every
335>ooo ; but by railway, notwithstanding the average
length of the journey has greatly increased, the
former has been diminished to i in 580,000, and the
latter to one in five millions ; safety in travelling by
sea has also been greatly increased by means of
improved lighthouses. By the rapid transmission
of messages by telegraphs and of commodities by
steam-ships and railways, the horrors of famine have
been largely diminished ; the health of this nation
has also been improved by greater variety of foods,
and the increasing cost of meat has been restrained.
It is well known that in periods of famine, the great
loss of life has arisen, not from universal scarcity of
food, but from the loss of time in ordering and con-
veying it. Whilst also the steam-engine has been
the means of relieving hundreds of thousands of
men from mere animal toil ; it has, with the aid of
the printing-press, supplied them with cheap daily
intelligence.

Science has also proved itself to be a great source
of employment, as well as wealth. By developing
new processes it has given employment to whole
armies of workmen in numerous arts, manufactures,
and occupations. Some of those employments
necessitating scientific training. About 300,000
persons are employed on railways alone in Great

Science a soitrce of employment. 37

Britain, besides those who were engaged in their
construction ; and in the postal department alone of
the telegraph service of this country more than
fifteen thousand operatives are employed. Chemical
works also find employment for twenty-six thousand,
and gasworks for ten thousand work people. The
telegraphs of the United States of America alone,
provide employment for about 7,000 persons ; and \
the railways of the world employ about 1,900,000
men.

It may be objected that the extension of science
in this country, instead of increasing employment
for workmen has produced an opposite effect, by so
increasing the production of goods by machinery,
and by physical and chemical processes, that we
have glutted the markets of the world in years gone
by, and are now suffering the results of over-produc-
tion. This is a very limited view of the case ; over- \
production is only true of particular manufactures,
and is a result of ill-directed commercial energy, to
which manufacturing- skill is only a servant. The
objection also contains its own reply; — that it is
certainly much greater to our advantage to have
supplied other nations with manufactured commodi-
ties, than that other nations should have supplied us,
as they would have done had they the manufacturing
skill. At present, however, continental nations are
gradually supplanting us in manufactures ; and
gradually supplying us with the goods which we

38 Science alters the distribution of labour.

formerly supplied them, and our fear is that this
is largely a result of our neglect of science.

In many cases instead of superseding labour,
science has changed its kind, or its mode of dis-
tribution ; — in the case of steam-ships, instead of
navigation being conducted entirely by nautical
ability, it is partly effected by the skill of the
engineer ; conveyance of goods by road and canal
has not been entirely supplanted, but partly sup-
plemented by conveyance by railways. The diminu-
tion of labour which sometimes occurs in consequence
of the progress of science is extremely small com-
pared with its increase. The number of waggoners
and horses now employed, merely to collect and
deliver all the goods for railways, is actually much
greater than the whole of those employed for con-
veying all the goods of the country before railways
were constructed.

It would be altogether a false argument to say
that the practical benefits derived from the labour of
scientific discoverers by the different classes of the
community are uncertain or imaginary, because the
discoveries and the practical benefits are not in all
cases immediately connected. We know that the
consumers of tea in this country derive benefit from
the grower of that herb in China through the hands
of a series of intervening agents, as certainly as if
they received the tea direct from his hands. Cause
and effect are inseparable, and the remote effect of a

Neglect of scientific research. 39

series of connected causes is not less certain than
the immediate ones.

It is a remarkable fact, that of the multitude of
rich manufacturers, merchants, capitalists, and land-
owners in this country, who have derived such great
pecuniary benefits from original scientific research,
there is scarcely one who has ever given to a scien-
tific society, institution, or investigator, a single
thousand pounds for the aid of pure research
in experimental physics or chemistry ;* the
nearest approach to exceptions are a very few
wealthy persons who have devoted themselver per-
sonally to scientific discovery. Manufacturers have
willingly reaped the advantages of the labours of
unpaid discoverers, but have not adequately sowed
the means of future progress. Many of those
manufacturers and others would, however, willingly
give money towards such an object if they under-
stood the value and the necessity of scientific
research.

Whilst also many millions of pounds are annually
expended in this country upon religious, philanthropic
and other good objects, there is scarcely a scien-
tific society or institution (with the exception of the
Royal Society and the British Association) which
expends even the small sum of five hundred pounds
a year on pure experimental research in physics or

* In the year 1870, a gentleman of the name of Davis bequeathed
£2,000 to the Royal Institution, London, to aid original scientific
research.

40 Science neglected; doctrines supported.

chemistry. In the Royal Institution of Great
Britain, the average annual expenses relating to
experimental research, including salaries to assist-
ants for research in the laboratory, from the year
1867 to 1871, did not amount to two hundred and
fifty pounds. On the other hand, the " total net
receipts " of the British and Foreign Bible Society
alone, amount to about £213,000 a year. These
circumstances strongly indicate extreme ignorance
of the value and necessity of new scientific know-
ledge, and an equally strong desire to aid any good
object which is understood. The money given to
charitable and religious objects is largely a result of
the unpaid labours of scientific investigators in the
manner already described. The fact that verifiable
truth is seriously neglected, whilst millions of pounds
are annually devoted in this country to the support
of .dogmas and doctrines, proves that the English
nation is even now in a very imperfectly civilized
state.

Considering the multiplicity and variety of philan-
thropic institutions and bequests in this country,
and the great effect original scientific research has
in ameliorating the condition of mankind, and
reducing the amount of human misery, it is sur-
prising that no wealthy philanthropic individual has
bequeathed funds for the endowment of an institu-
tion for pure research in physics or chemistry.* In

* As a notable exception to the above statement : — " Scientific
research has now an Institute of its own in Birmingham, without

I

Why research is not encouraged. 41

America, the Smithsonian Institution " was founded
at Washington by benevolent and patriotic persons,*
" for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men," and one of the objects of that institution is
" to enlarge the existing stock of knowledge by the
addition of new truths," and a portion of its plan is
"to stimulate men of talent to make original re-
searches by offering suitable rewards for memoirs
containing new truths," and "to appropriate annually
a portion of the income for particular researches."

What is the reason that scientific research is not
sufficiently encouraged in England ? It is chiefly
ignorance. There are very few good and important
subjects, understood by the public, which are not in
this country greatly assisted, nor many valuable
public servants, whose labours are understood, who
do not receive liberal payment and reward ; and
scientific research and discoverers therefore are
neglected, not wilfully, nor because persons are un-
willing to encourage good objects, but because scien-
tific discovery and its great value to the nation are
so little known. Scarcely a member of our legislature,
or of our Universities, is fully acquainted with the
national importance of scientific discovery,t and it

being indebted to the public funds. A fund has already been collected
for carrying on the work. The building is called 'The Institute of
Scientific Kesearch.' " See Nature, January 7th, 1881, p. 366 ; the
Athenccum, February 5th, 1881, p. 204 ; the English Mechanic, p. 537,
February llth, 18Si.

* Professor Bache left 50,000 dollars, and Smithson bequeathed
5-il,000 dollars to this Institution.

f Respecting the Members of our Houses of Legislature, a former
Postmaster-General remarked to me, that a dose of scientific research
would be too much for them.

42 Love of truth the best motive of discovery.

would probably be impossible to find a subject of
such great magnitude so little understood. Com-
paratively few persons have clear ideas of the
essential differences between scientific instruction
and research.

Scientific research can only be successfully pursued
by employing the highest motive — viz., a love of
truth in preference to all things ; and this is a con-
dition which very few persons really understand, and
a principle which a still smaller number practise.
Men in this country are so accustomed to be actuated
by the less noble motive of immediate self-interest
or of some apparent practical result, that they cannot
perceive that in scientific investigation the most
valuable results can only be obtained by employing
the highest motive. However necessary and effective
the motive of immediate self-interest or of apparent
practical result may be in ordinary affairs of life, it
will not enable a man to make many discoveries,
because it leads him away from those which are
possible to search for others which may or may not
be possible. The beginning of discoveries are often
so very small, that it requires acute senses and
observation in order to perceive them ; and if the
mind is preoccupied with a desire to discover some
particular practical object, new phenomena are over-
looked. In discovery, man must follow where
Nature leads.

Another cause of want of encouragement of
research, is the natural selfishness which exists,

Ignorance of research by practical men. 43

though in very different degrees, in all men. Many
wealthy persons wish things to remain as they are.
Some manufacturers would not aid research unless
they could monopolize its advantages. Students
also generally prefer those subjects which are best
rewarded, and do not sufficiently consider their in-
trinsic value. The love of truth for truth's sake
alone is very weak in most men, and but few men
make the greatest good their chief object in life.

The extreme ignorance in this country of the
value of scientific research, is also largely due to the
narrowness of the " practical " character of the
English mind ; men cannot perceive the deep-seated
and universal sources of their wealth, and they
prefer those occupations which yield the most obvi-
ously remunerative results. It is also partly due to
scientific investigators themselves not having pleaded
their own cause ; such men have been so absorbed
in the more important occupation of discovery, that
they have, probably more than any other class of
persons, neglected to enforce the just claims of their
own subject. It is, however, chiefly caused by the
influence of misapplied wealth, operating through
the old Universities and large public schools. The
sons of the wealthy are most of them educated at
those institutions, and according to evidence supplied
by University authorities to Royal Commissioners,
many persons send their sons to those places for
other purposes than to acquire learning, and allow
them too much money. The considerable wealth of

44 Research discouraged at our Universities.

these young men supplies them with attractions
which decoy them from industrious study, and the
wishes of the parents and students have been largely
acquiesced in by the tutors and college authorities.
At our old Universities also, physical and chemical
knowledge is very much less rewarded than some
other subjects, though latterly a considerable im-
provement has been made in this respect, but even
now there is not a University in the kingdom in
which a knowledge in scientific research is necessary
in order to obtain the highest scientific honour.* In
these various ways physical and chemical science has
been kept very low in our chief seats of learning;
and scientific research is greatly neglected by the
\ governing authorities.

It is reasonable to suppose that Universities should
be fountains of new theoretical scientific knowledge,
as well as be the disseminators of it, and that they
(especially the old ones with their rich endowments)
would be certain to promote scientific research, as
being especially a part of their functions ; but such
is not the case. Our old Universities have not estab-
lished any professorships of original research ; they
make no payment for such labour, nor reimburse any
expenditure incurred in such occupation, and afford
but little facility for the prosecution of pure scientific
inquiry. Further, they discourage scientific dis-
covery by giving the greatest emoluments, and the

* The Victoria University has recently become a partial exception to
this statement,

Research encouraged in German Universities. 45

highest honours in science they have to bestow, to
young men who have never made a single original
research, or discovered a new fact in science. The
money paid in the form of comparatively sinecure
fellowships, or retiring pensions to young men in
Oxford alone, " now amounts to about eighty or
ninety thousand pounds a year." It may be objected
that young men are not capable of doing original
research, but as they do it in German Universities,
they can also do it in England, if they are properly
disciplined, and are not decoyed from industry by
the possession or expectation of wealth. A man
who has never made a scientific research is not the
most worthy recipient of the highest scientific
honours, and in Germany it would not be given to
him ; he is not properly disciplined in the detection
of error or the discernment of truth in matters of
science ; he is deficient in accuracy of scientific
judgment, and in the true spirit of scientific inquiry.
It is unnecessary to speak of what has been done
during the last few years at our old Universities and
great public schools, in the erection of laboratories,
and in other ways for the promotion of science, because
it has been for the purposes of instruction, and not
of original research. No amount of ordinary in-
struction in science will remedy the evils caused by
want of original inquiry, because such instruction
does not produce new knowledge, but only
disseminates that already possessed.

46 Discoverers regarded as mere enthusiasts.

Many persons in this country think that all scien-
tific men are investigators, and that a portion of the
funds of scientific institutions generally are expended
upon investigation, but such is rarely the case.
Many also consider that those scientific men who
are applying new knowledge are discovering new
truths. And nearly all persons look upon inventors
as the only really practical scientific men, and upon
discoverers as unpractical enthusiasts who spend
their lives in pursuit of vague theories. But whilst
the inventor is a great and useful agent of civiliza-
tion, there is one behind him who is greater than
he, viz., the man who provides him with the new
knowledge upon which all his inventions must be
based.

The general aspect in which scientific research is
viewed by many persons in this country, is that of
a refined intellectual pursuit, which may be en-
couraged and honoured for the purpose of maintain-
ing the tone of society. The question, however, is
not whether this nation shall encourage research as
a refined intellectual occupation, but whether it
will contribute towards its own welfare by aiding
scientific discovery.

Many persons also look upon scientific research as
a hobby or as unpractical, arid upon discoverers as
mere accumulators of knowledge, but this is simply
in consequence of their ignorance of the subject ; if
discoveries were commercial commodities, the prac-
tical character of research would be within their

Highly practical nature of research. • 47

comprehension. A man who discovers knowledge
for the use of invention is quite as practical a person
as he who converts that knowledge into inventions
fit for practical uses. The men who thus lead
practical men must be practical themselves. Scien-
tific discoverers may be considered the most practical
men in existence, because their labours give rise to
greater and more numerous practical results than
those of any other persons. The discovery of a
single substance, such as oil-of-vitriol, or washing-
soda, has led to the formation of many valuable
inventions, patented or otherwise, and to the estab-
lishment of thousands of manufactories. It is well
known also that scientific discoverers are ardent
lovers of truth, and are therefore very willing to
communicate their knowledge for the good of man-
kind, and that manufacturers, men of business, and
others, not unfrequently obtain from them and from
their published researches, information of great
value to themselves without even expecting to pay
for it ; forgetting that a scientific man may com-
municate in a passing remark, information which
cost him years of labour to obtain.

Some persons also think that science is changeable
and uncertain — that the discoveries of one genera-
tion are disproved by those of another, because they
occasionally see scientific theories altered and super-
seded. But the real truth of the case is that the
changes in the aspect of science which we continually
witness do not often result from alterations in our

48 The laws of matter are the same for all men.

stock of positive knowledge, but from additions made
to it. Demonstrable truth is imperishable. It is true
that many theories have been invented and enter-
tained for a while in the minds of scientific men,
and have then passed away, but we must remember
that these are only the scaffolding of science, and no
part of its real fabric. They consist of ideas which,
whilst they assist us in understanding science, and
in making discoveries, form no real part of our
positive knowledge.

Other persons seem to think that the laws of
matter are different in the laboratory from what they
are in the workshop ; that the principles which
regulate a scientific experiment are different from
those which govern a large manufacturing process ;
but this is a wrong idea. The laws of matter are
universal, substances have nearly the same proper-
ties in all places and in the hands of all men ; water
boils at the same temperature whether in the retort
of a chemist, the saucepan of a kitchenmaid, or
the pan of a soap-boiler ; iron wire is as readily
deprived of its rust in a chemist's acid bottle as in a
wire-drawer's pickling tub ; a piece of phosphorus
will as readily ignite in the hands of a chemist as in
those of a match maker ; a galvanic battery yields
the same quantity of electricity whether it be in the
hands of an experimentalist or in those of a working
electro-plater.

It is true that many things which have appeared
very promising in theory or in experiment, have

Sources of failure in inventions. 49

failed altogether in practice, but why is this ? it is
not that the principles of nature operated in the one
case and did not operate in the other, but that we
have imperfectly understood them, that from some
unforeseen circumstances we have been unable to
apply them ; or that we have indolently abandoned
them without sufficient or proper trial. In many
cases we are unable to obtain the same conditions
of success upon the large scale that we have upon
the small one. In other cases a process fails because
of its too great expense ; many attempts have been
made to supersede steam as a motive power by
means of electro-magnetism, and engines driven by
that force have been constructed of five or ten horse-
power, but the cost of driving them has been found
to be at least ten times the amount of that of the
steam-engine of equal strength. And in other cases
we fail because we attempt at once to carry out upon
a large scale that which has only been the subject of
limited experiment, instead of enlarging the process
by small degrees, and adapting the apparatus, the
materials and the treatment, to the size of the
operation.

That also which appears very simple in the hands
of an experimentalist, almost invariably becomes
much more complex when carried into practice in a
.manufactory, simply because there is then a greater
number of conditions to be fulfilled. Electro-plating
a piece of steel with silver is to a chemist a very
simple matter, because it is of no importance to him

5° Research has aided every manufacture.

whether the silver adheres firmly, is of good colour,
or is deposited at a certain cost ; but with a manu-
facturer unless all these conditions are fulfilled, the
process is a failure. These matters, however, belong
to invention and not to original discovery.

We should not condemn theoretical science
because we are not able, even with fair and per-
severing trial, to apply it to any useful purpose, but
wait patiently until circumstances ripen for its
application. Many inventions which are inappli-
cable in one state of knowledge become applicable
by the progress of scientific research. The idea of
an electric telegraph, attempted by Mr. Ronalds, in
the year 1816, with the aid of frictional electricity,
had to wait the development of the galvanic battery
and the discovery of electro-magnetism before it
could be successfully applied.

Many manufacturers seem to think that because
some of their operations are completely routine, and
have been handed down to them by their pre-
decessors in nearly their present state, they are not
at all indebted to science ; but there is no manu-
facture, especially among metals, which has not in
some degree been aided by scientific discovery.

In addition to the great benefits accruing from
original research to all classes of society, our Gov-
ernments have also derived immense advantages
from the same source. The revenues have been
greatly increased by the universal advantages con-
ferred upon all kinds of industry and commerce by

Advantages derived by Governments from research. 51

scientific knowledge. The additional taxes upon
increased incomes from agriculture, arts, manufac-
tures, mines ; increased value of land and rents ;
investments in railway, telegraph, steam-ship and
other companies, have been extremely great. From
the sale of patents alone, a surplus sum of nearly
six hundred thousand pounds has already accumu-
lated. Our Governments are also indebted to
original research for the use of percussion-powder,
gun-cotton, improvements in cannon, projectiles,
rifles, armour-plated ships, the ocean telegraph,
field telegraph, the telephone, rapid postal com-
munication, the speedy transport of troops and war-
material, and a multitude of other advantages. The
value of science to Governments in the prevention
of war by means of more ready correspondence
through telegraph is incalculable. Mr. Sumner, of
America, at the period when the Atlantic telegraph
was first employed, stated that the use of that tele-
graph averted a probable rupture between Great
Britain and America. There was a period when we
did not possess such evidence of the great value of
science ; but that time has now passed away, and
our governing men have had abundant proof of the
national importance of scientific discovery, and of
the essential dependence of the welfare of this
country upon scientific research.

Whilst vast sums of money are spent upon the
applications of science in military and naval affairs,
research itself is neglected ; the superstructure is

52 Small amount of aid by Government to research.

attended to, but the foundations are left to decay.
A very small proportion of the money which is ex-
pended upon military affairs would, if devoted to
research, save a great deal of expense in warfare : —

" Were half the power, that fills the world with terror, —
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts." — LONGFELLOW.

Our Government has as yet made but little pay-
ment for the labour of pure research in experimental
physics or chemistry; it has, however, given four
thousand pounds a year for five years to be distributed
by the Royal Society among scientific investigators,
partly as personal payment. Income tax is deducted
from these grants.

Want of recognition of the value of science has
been so general in this country, that it is quite
pleasing to quote a somewhat different case from the
Illustrated London News, January 4th, 1873, viz., that
of the late Archibald Smith, L.L.D., F.R.S. That
gentleman was an investigator in pure mathematical
science, and devoted the latter part of his life to the
application of mathematics in the computation, reduc-
tion, and discussion of the deviation of the mariners'
compass in wooden and in iron ships, and made
practical deductions therefrom in the construction of
those vessels. He published those practical applica-
tions of his scientific knowledge in the form of an
Admiralty Manual, which was afterwards reprinted
in various languages. Her Majesty's Government

Official treatment of Dr. Stenhouse. 53

subsequently " requested his acceptance of a gift of
two thousand pounds, not as a reward, but as a
mark of appreciation of the value of his researches,
and of the influence they were exercising on the
maritime interests of England and the world at
large." The kind of labour rewarded in this case
was not scientific discovery, but the practical appli-
cation of previously existing scientific knowledge.

The case of the late Dr. Stenhouse, F.R.S., is one
of rather an opposite kind. That gentleman devoted
his life throughout to pure investigations in organic
chemistry, and published several of his researches
in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society."* His discoveries are very numerous, and
although not much applied to practical uses by him-
self, the result of his researches on Lichens, and the
yellowr gum of Botany Bay, have been applied
extensively by other persons in the manufacture of
" French purple " and picric acid, and will doubtless
continue to be applied to valuable uses. He held
the Government appointment of Assayer to the
Royal Mint, London, an office for several years un-
profitable to him, but of increasing remunerative
value, and which would have been subsequently
worth £1,200 a year; but after the decease of his
colleague, Dr. Miller, in 1870, that office, which was
then worth to him about £600 a year, was abolished
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he lost the

* See " Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers," vol. 5, pp. 719
and 890 ; and vol. 8, p. 1,010.

54 Discoverers less rewarded than inventors.

appointment, receiving, however, £500 as compensa-
tion. An application was therefore made to the
Government, and a partial recompense to him was
obtained, by Her Majesty granting him one hundred
pounds a year " for eminence in chemical attain-
ments, and on account of loss by suppression of
office in the Mint." The only difference in these two
instances, was, that in the second there was a very
much greater amount of pure research and discovery,
and a much smaller degree of applied knowledge.

These instances illustrate the statement, that how-
ever great an amount of valuable knowledge in pure
science a man may discover and publish, or however
freely he may provide others with the materials of
invention and wealth, if he never invents anything,
nor applies his knowledge to useful purposes, he is
usually less rewarded even than an inventor. " The
more intrinsically valuable the labour, and the greater
the degree of profound original thought required to
direct it, the less is it usually appreciated by the
governing men of a nation." Absorbed in exciting
questions relating to political emergencies, and
national matters requiring immediate attention,
even men of great administrative ability fail to
appreciate the less direct though more fundamental
sources of a nation's happiness and wealth. In
harmony with these instances also, we find that it is
not the pure sciences, but the concrete and applied
ones, such as meteorology, geology, natural his-
tory, &c., in the Meteorological Department, the

Relative rewards of public and eminent men. 55

Geological Survey, the British and South Kensington
Museums, the Geological Museum, &c., and the
National Gallery of Art, which have received the
greatest degree of support from our Governments.

That discoverers are not treated by us as we treat
other valuable members of the community is quite
clear ; either a physician, a judge, divine, lawyer, or
railway superintendent of high ability, obtain from
one to many thousand pounds a year, but a discoverer
in pure physics or chemistry is, in scarcely any case,
paid anything for his labour. That most eminent
discoverer, Faraday, received for his scientific lectures
at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, only £200
a year and apartments, during many years, and
absolutely nothing for his great discoveries ; and
during the remainder of his life he only received a
few hundred pounds per annum, including a pension
°f £3°° pounds a year from Government. In con-
trast with this, the general manager of the Midland
Railway has £4,000 a year. A General of our army
receives £2,000, and a Field Marshal £4,000 a year
(See " Whitaker's Almanack," 1873, pp. 121 and
138). A Head Master of either of the great public
schools obtains from £3,000 a year upwards. An
Archbishop of Canterbury receives £15,000 a year,
besides a great amount of influence and power in the
form of patronage to 183 livings, a palatial residence,
and a seat in the House of Peers. A Bishop of
London has £10,000, the patronage of 98 livings,
and a seat in the House of Lords. I do not, how-

56 Comparative fewness of discoverers.

ever, mean to imply that these large emoluments are
not deserved. Whilst also there are nearly 13,000
church benefices in England (See the " Clergy List,"
also " Whitaker's Almanack," 1873, pp. 153 and 155,
and " Walford's County Families," 1872, pp. 173 and
610), there is scarcely a single appointment entirely
devoted to scientific discovery, nor a single professor-
ship in original research in science. I leave my
readers to judge to what extent these instances
illustrate the statement that discoverers are not
treated by us as we treat other valuable members of
the community. Partly in consequence of the fore-
going neglect, the proportion of persons wholly
devoted to scientific research in this country probably
does not much exceed one in one million of the
population.

It is scarcely credible that in a wealthy and
civilized country, whilst the non-productive classes
are protected in the enjoyment of titles and material
wealth which in many cases they have not earned,
the greatest scientific benefactors of the nation are
constrained to live in straitened circumstances whilst
working for the pecuniary and other advantages of
those classes, and of manufacturers, capitalists, land-
owners, and the nation in general. By these remarks
it is not intended to imply that discoverers are inten-
tionally neglected ; but that the injustice they suffer
is a disgrace to this country, and reflects discredit
upon the governing classes, and especially upon those
who reap the greatest advantage.

Reward not always proportioned to skill. 57

The men who are rewarded highly in this
country are not always those who yield the greatest
service to the nation, but frequently those who
render the most immediate or most apparent benefit;
to stop short at this cannot produce the greatest
degree of success. The national services of a great
discoverer are probably not equalled by those of any
man. Who can estimate the value of the commercial,
social, moral, political, and other great advantages
to the world, of Oersted's discovery of the principle
of electro-magnetism, which enabled the invention
of the electric telegraph to be made ? The men we
reward the highest are not those who discover know-
ledge, but those who use or apply it; physicians,
judges/ bishops, lawyers, railway managers, military
and naval officers, and head masters of schools, alla
of them gentlemen who render great services to the
nation,' by using, diffusing, and applying knowledge
already possessed.

It requires less rare ability to apply knowledge to
new purposes by means of invention, than to dis-
cover it ; it is still less difficult to diffuse it by means
of tuition and lectures, because the labours of a
teacher consist largely of a repetition of other men's
discoveries and inventions; and to use scientific
knowledge in the ordinary business of every-day life,
requires a still more common degree of ability.

A chief reason why ordinary business capacity is
paid for whilst original research is not, is the fact
that research is not considered a necessity ; many

58 General desire for immediate profit.

persons do not perceive its immense future value.
Men perform those duties first which they feel they
must : they are also willing to pay for the perform-
ance of those duties which press most urgently upon
them, and defer all other kinds of labour that they
consider will bear postponement. Most men act upon
this rule, until they acquire a habit of sacrificing the
future to the present, of neglecting more important
matters in order to attend to less, and of living too
much for money, without sufficient regard for the
more valuable condition, viz., individual and national
improvement. These circumstances also largely
explain the fact that it requires more pressure to
induce individuals or governing bodies to aid original
research than to assist any other good object. Other
chief reasons why persons in general cannot perceive
the great practical value of new scientific truth are,
because the perception of it requires a scientifically
trained mind. The greatest truths are frequently
the least obvious, and are therefore valued the least.
It may be objected that research is not aided,
because it sometimes takes a long time to acquire a
practical shape and make it pay. We do not omit
to plant an acorn because it requires many years to
become an oak ; we do not neglect to rear a child
because he may not live to become a man ; but we
leave scientific discovery to take care of itself. The
intense desire which exists in this country for "quick
returns " has shewn itself in the much greater readi-
ness to aid technical education than to promote

Hindrances to Science in this country. 59

permanent progress by means of original research.
But the discoveries made in such a place as the
Royal Institution of Great Britain have had a vastly
greater beneficial effect upon civilization than that of
any technical institution which has ever existed.

In a letter received by me from the Duke of
Somerset, and which I have permission to publish,
the true state of things in this country in relation to
pure research is stated with remarkable accuracy
and brevity : —

" The hindrances to scientific studies in this
country are very many. The gentry are almost
invariably educated by the clergy, and the clergy
have seldom had time or opportunities for any
scientific study. They usually take pupils or become
tutors as soon as they have taken their degrees, and
can only teach the Latin and Greek which they have
themselves learned. The commercial classes value
what they call practical science ; this means some
application of science for the purpose of making
money. Competitive examinations may promote a
superficial acquaintance with the elements of science,
but are unfavourable to the development of scientific
culture. The scientific associations tend to degrade
science by exhibiting scientific men as candidates
for applause from assemblies which seek amusement
and startling results from lectures and experiments.
The advancement of science, is therefore, left to
comparatively few men, who are unregarded and
unrewarded."

6o Necessity of State aid to Research.

To remedy this state of things we require a general
encouragement of pure scientific inquiry by the State
and Universities. It is thought by some persons
who have given special attention to the subject, that
the State ought to encourage such research and
science in general, by appointing a Minister of
Science possessing scientific knowledge and good
administrative ability ; a Scientific Council to advise
our Governments in all important matters relating
to science ; and by establishing State laboratories for
pure scientific inquiry, with discoverers of repute in
them wholly engaged in research in their respective
subjects.

There are also many new experiments, investiga-
tions, and explorations, which neither private indi-
viduals, nor even corporate bodies, such as the
Royal Society, the British Association, Geographical
Society, can effectually make, and which only a
Government can carry out, such as Arctic expedi-
tions, trigonometrical surveys, deep sea dredging
operations, magnetic observations, determinations of
longitude, meteorological and astronomical observa-
tions, researches on tides, observations of earth-
quakes, determinations of the height of mountains
and the density of the crust of the earth, experiments
on the best form of ships, geographical explorations,
and many others.

It is clear from the enormous advantages which
this nation has already derived from scientific dis-
covery in physics and chemistry, pursued with only

Science an immense source of wealth. 61

the aid of the very limited means of private persons,
that had research in those subjects been sufficiently
supported, the manufactures, arts, commerce, wealth,
and civilization of this country would have been
much greater than they are ; emigration also of the
industrious classes, disease, pauperism, crime, the
evil effects of famine, etc., would have been much
less. The amount of knowledge and riches obtain-
able by means of research and invention is practically
unlimited, and it is astonishing that this immense
source of industry and wealth in a nation should
have been so neglected by our Governments. The
practical value of new scientific knowledge is vastly
greater than that of all our goldfields or even of our
coal supply, because it would not only enable us to
obtain from coal several times the amount of avail-
able heat and mechanical power we now secure, but
also to apply to our wants the numerous other
materials composing the crust of our globe and the
contents of our oceans ; also all terrestial forces, the
internal heat, the tidal energy and atmospheric
currents, and the immense amount of power this
Earth is continually receiving from the Sun. Whilst
at present vast amounts of materials and energy
remain unutilized, nearly all those terrestrial sub-
stances and forces might probably be rendered of
service to us if we possessed sufficient knowledge.

That scientific research is a far greater source of
wealth and wellbeing than our stores of coal is easily
proved. At present we obtain in our best steam-

62 Great loss of heat in the steam engine.

engines only about one-seventh (or less) of the
mechanical power producible by the combustion of
the coal, the remainder being lost in various ways.
And this occurs simply because we have not yet
discovered a method of wholly converting heat into
mechanical power. In some other instances we are
able to convert one force wholly into another without
loss, as for example : the chemical action of a voltaic
cell into electricity ; and by means of research we
shall probably be enabled to effect a similar complete
conversion of other powers into each other. The
effect of converting heat wholly into mechanical
power would be equal to increasing our stock of
coals for that purpose to seven times its present
amount. This instance is only one of the many
thousand possible ways in which research may yet
prove of value to mankind.

It is true that a very large amount of original
research in physics and chemistry has been done in
this country; the contents of our scientific journals and
of the publications of our various Learned Societies
prove this. It is also true that the English nation
has been pre-eminently active in applying scientific
knowledge to practical uses by means of inventions
and has been generally the first in carrying out in-
ventions on a large scale. We have been either the
first, or nearly so, in developing steam-engines, rail-
ways, locomotives, rapid trains, gas works, flour
mills, blast-furnaces, cotton machinery, cheap post-
age, light-houses, electro-plating, lucifer-matches

Examples of English enterprise. 63

electric-telegraphs, submarine electric cables, great
engineering establishments, iron ship-building, and
many other important enterprises. Three out of
four of all the great ocean steamers, and three-
fourths of all the locomotives of the world were
constructed in this country.* By means of our
enterprise and capital also, the first railways, tele-
graphs, gas works, cotton mills, modern water works,
suspension bridges, water wheels, harbours, light-
houses, &c., &c., in nearly all parts of the world
were constructed ; and foreign nations have been
inducted into the practical methods of working our
great manufacturing and technical applications of
science.

By means of English enterprise and skill the cities
of Aix-la-Chapelle, Altona, Amsterdam, Antwerp,
Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, , Cologne, Frankfort-on-
Maine, Ghent, Haarlem, Hanover, Lille, Rotter-
dam, Stolberg, Toulouse, Vienna, and others were
lighted with gas. We formed Water Companies or
Waterworks in Amsterdam, Berlin, and other cities,
and drained Naples. We utilized the falls of the
Rhone at Bellegarde, and thus obtained 10,000
horse-power for the use of the French manufacturers.
We also sent the first steam-boat to Coblentz in
1817, and the first to America. We laid the first
Atlantic cables. And as a general truth, we have
been foremost in invention, application, and enterprise.

* See Nature, April 24th and May 1st, 1873, pp. 485 and 13 ; also
Work and Wages, by Brassey, pp. 170 and 178.

64 More rapid advance of other nations.

Recent International Exhibitions however, and
the migration of various branches of our trade to the
Continent and America, have shown that the degree
of our relative superiority in manufacturing skill is
diminishing. Other nations, especially the German
and American, perceiving the dependence of inven-
tion upon research, and the enormous pecuniary and
other advantages gained by us, by the application of
scientific knowledge to manufacturing and other
purposes, have within the last few years aroused
themselves, and are now pursuing pure science much
more energetically than ourselves. A few years ago
the relative number of original researches made per
annum in England, France, and Germany were in
the "proportion 127, 245, and 777. Many of those
made in Germany were valuable ones, and were
made by Students in order to obtain a degree. Other
nations are rapidly gaining upon us in the application
of science to industrial purposes, and have even
surpassed us in the extent of some of their manufac-
turing and technical operations. Many persons who
have visited Europe and America at intervals during
the last twenty years have testified to this.

The Vielle Montagne Zinc Company in Belgium
employ 6,500 workmen, and produce annually 32,000
tons of zinc. The John Cockerill Company, engine-
builders, Seraing, near Liege, employ nearly 8,000
men. Krupp, the great engineer at Essen, near
Dusseldorf, employs about 10,000 workmen ; his
works at Essen alone cover 450 acres, and 1,000 tons

Encouragement of Research in Germany. 65

of coal are consumed in them daily. The Anzin
Company (Valenciennes) "is the largest coal company
in the world, producing no less than 1,200,000 tons
per annum, and employs 8,000 hands." The Chat-
illon and Commentry Iron and Coal Company
(France), produce annually from 300,000 to 350,000
tons of coal and coke, nearly 70,000 tons of iron and
steel, and employ nearly 9,000 workmen. At the
Creuzot Ironworks (France), " the mineral conces-
sions cover an area of nearly six square miles, the
coal-fields nearly twenty-five square miles, the build-
ing 296 acres. There are nearly forty-five miles of
railway between various parts of the works, upon
which are generally running sixteen locomotives.
The galleries in the mines are more than twenty miles
long." 10,000 persons are employed in the works and
the annual amount of wages paid equals ^"400,000.*

Our practice with regard to original science has
been very different from the plan carried out in Ger-
many. Within the last few years great laboratories
have been erected in Berlin, Leipzig, Aix la Chapelle,
Bonn, Carlsruhe, Stuttgardt, and other places, at the
expense of the State, and special provision has been
made in them for original scientific research. A
glance at the frequently published list of scientific
investigations made in different countries will shew
us that the Germans have been making a far greater
number of discoveries in science than ourselves.

Sir R. B. C. Brodie, Professor of Chemistry at

*NOTE. — See "Work and Wages," by Brassey, p.p. 15-131 and 132; aLo the
"Laboratory," vol. i, p.p. 313-316-378 and 380.

K

66 Influence of German Research.

Oxford, speaking of his experience when a student at
Geissen, in Germany, states : " I say that the enthu-
siasm and earnestness of the young men in the labor-
atory was quite unparalleled in my experience at
Oxford. The dilettante sort of way in which things
go on there is very inferior indeed to the way the
German students study. At Heidelberg, I have been
told, there are about eighty professors, and amongst
those professors are some of the most eminent men in
Europe, so that they have a staff quite unsurpassed."

The industry of the Germans in scientific research
is quite remarkable, they are availing themselves of
the great fountain of knowledge to a much greater
extent than ourselves, and are already beginning to
reap the reward. Within the last few years they have
succeeded, by means of researches, in making alizarine,
the colouring principle of madder. " England pro-
duces immense quantities of benzene, the greatest part
of which goes to Germany, there to be converted into
aniline dyes, a considerable quantity of which goes
back to England. No other country is so far advanced
in the manufacture of the coal-tar colours as Ger-
many. The quantity of alizarine manufactured by
the German makers far surpasses the English pro-
duction." (See "Alizarine, Natural and Artificial,"
by F. Versmann, New York, 1873). Statements of
this kind are frequently published, and made by our
manufacturers and others, of the departure of branch
after branch of our manufactures to the Continent, and
of continually increasing importation of foreign-made
articles.

Neglect of Research is injuring our prosperity. 67

Some persons, having become aware of the cosmo-
politan nature of scientific research, have suggested
that it is a matter of no importance to us as a nation
whether we make researches or not, as foreigners
would make them, and we could apply them. But no
honourable man would, after reflection, seriously main-
tain such a proposition, because it implies a willingness
to obtain from the labours of other persons, advantages
without paying for them. It is partly this absence of
a desire to pay for the labour of investigation, which
is now damaging the manufacturing and commercial
prosperity of this country. It is also certain that how-
ever much we may have hitherto succeeded commer-
cially, without making payment for research, we should
have succeeded much better had we properly assisted
investigators in pure science. Our success has hither-
to been obtained, not in consequence, but in spite of
the disadvantageous circumstances under which dis-
coverers have laboured.

The commercial argument in favour of encouraging
research, although the most effective with the great
mass of persons, and therefore much dwelt upon in
this chapter, is however quite a secondary one; the en-
couragement of truth for the sake of its own intrinsic
worth, in preference to the material or extrinsic value
of its results, should be the foundation of all aid to
discovery. Justice, also, ought to come before all
minor considerations, and no upright man would wish
for a moment that anyone, and much less the greatest
scientific intellects in the country, should work for his
benefit without being remunerated.

68 Without Research we lose our foremost position.

• It has been objected that Continental nations, the
Germans in particular, have pirated our patents, in-
fringed our designs, imitated our labels, used our
names, and taken our improvements wholesale, and
this may be true. But we still have had by far the
largest portion of the reward of our greater energy
and inventive skill ; we have had the great advantage
of being first in the markets of the world ; and that
advantage can only be retained by our being the first
in the pursuit of original research, as we have so long
been in the application of science to industrial arts,
and not by purchasing foreign inventions, nor by
accepting gifts of unrecompensed researches.

Nations as well as individuals are apt to push to an
extreme the means by which they have succeeded in
gaining either riches or power. We have devoted
ourselves relatively too much to the pursuit of money
and too little to the pursuit of knowledge. The desire
for wealth is in this country so great, that probably
nothing but a loss of that wealth will ever make us
properly encourage the pursuit of new knowledge.

Whilst research is being neglected, manufacturers
and others in all directions are asking for improve-
ments in their machines and processes ; employers of
steam engines want to obtain more power from the
coals; makers of washing soda wish to recover their
lost sulphur ; copper smelters, want to utilize the
copper smoke ; glass makers wish to prevent bad
colour in their glass ; iron puddlers want to economise
heat ; gas companies are desirous of diminishing the

Urgent necessity Jor new knowledge. 69

leakage of gas ; iron smelters wish to avoid the evil
effects of impurities in the iron; manufacturers in gen-
eral want to utilise their waste products and prevent
their polluting our streams an-i atmosphere ; and so
on without end. And inventors are continually trying
to supply these demands, by exercising their skill in
every possible way, with the aid of scientific informa-
tion contained in books ; but after putting manufac-
turers and themselves to great expense, they very
frequently fail, not always through want of inventive
skill, but often through want of new knowledge attain-
able only by means of pure research. Judging from
the vast amount of inventive skill already expended
upon the steam engine, and the small proportion of
available mechanical power yet obtained from the
coals consumed in it, it is highly probable that a
machine for completely converting heat into mechan-
ical force cannot be invented until more scientific
knowledge is discovered.

It must not be supposed from these remarks, that
discoveries which will enable a man to make any
particular invention, can be produced to order ; that
is only true to a very limited extent. Men are beggars
of nature, and must not expect to be permitted to
choose her gifts, or dictate what secrets shall be dis-
closed. We may however be certain that if we acquire
a very much greater supply of new scientific know-
ledge, we shall then be able to perfect many good
inventions, though not always of the kind we wish, or
in the way we expect. The great sewage question

70 Grave defects in our manufacturing processes.

may perhaps be solved in quite an unexpected way,
possibly by the discovery of some substance capable
of precipitating ammonia and organic matter from
their solutions.

Nearly all our manufacturing processes are full of
imperfections ; thus the loss of gas by a single large
provincial gas company, after that substance has left
the works, amounts to nearly one hundred and fifty
millions of cubic feet per annum, and to a value of
about £18,000; and the soil'of all our large cities and
towns is permeated and rendered foetid by coal gas.
And it has been stated by an eminent authority in such
matters that we might save 500,000 tons of coal a
year by economizing the waste heat of furnaces, by
purifying the coal, coking it, etc. In a single chemical
manufactory, out of about two thousand tons of hydro-
chloric acid used per annum, about eight hundred tons
have been allowed to flow away as a polluting sub-
stance, because it was not possible to utilise it. The
loss of material from a single large glass works equals
fourteen hundred tons per annum, and a value of
£8,000. Similar grave defects might be pointed out
in nearly all our large manufactures, by those acquain-
ted with the subject.

Inventions are wanted for quickening the process of
vinegar making, and diminishing the percentage of
loss of the acid. For bleaching discoloured fats. For
quickening the process of converting cast iron into
malleable iron. To easily separate nitrogen from the
oxygen of the atmosphere. To economically convert

Numerous inventions now requisite. 71

the nitrogen of the air into valuable products, such as
nitric acid and ammonia. To find uses for the im-
mense quantities of minerals which abound all over
the earth ; to utilise wolfram and find applications for
tungstic acid; to apply titanic acid to great industrial
purposes ; to produce aluminium on the large scale, as
we now produce iron. To tan leather more quickly,
and without detriment to its quality. To prevent the
rusting of iron. To more perfectly prevent smoke.
To collect and use the sulphuric acid of the salt cake
consumed in the glass manufacture. To make window
glass by means of common salt. To deodorise offen-
sive substances. To find larger uses for phosphorus,
sodium, magnesium, and common salt. To remove
phosphorus and sulphur from iron ores, and sulphur
from coal and coke. To obtain a good white alloy
as a cheaper substitute for German silver. To convert
white phosphorus into the red variety by a less dan-
gerous process than the present one. To prevent the
putrefaction of " peltries " in glue making. To obtain
better and cheaper materials for colouring glass. To
more perfectly prevent animal food from change. To
obviate or prevent explosions in mines. To perfectly
purify ordinary red lead for making flint glass. A
cheaper process for converting common salt into
washing soda ; and so on without end.

We. also very badly require a method of recording
our thoughts in readable forms upon paper, without
the slow and laborious process of writing. An incal-
culable amount of brains and of intellect, especially of

72 Invention stopped by insufficiency of knowledge.

the greatest thinkers, would be saved by such a dis-
covery. The curative arts also are permeated with
empiricism, and thousands of lives of persons of all
classes of society, are annually lost in this country
through want of a more perfect scientific basis of
•medicine, attainable only by means of experiment
and observation.

In this country, such great practical results have been
obtained by means of invention, that many persons
suppose a sufficiency of inventive skill will enable us
to effect every possible scientific object, and are sur-
prised that no one can invent a plan of utilising the
^entire heat of coals, or a mode of overcoming the
sewage difficulty, or prevent the great leakage of coal
gas, or arrest epidemics, or produce a steam engine
which shall work without waste of power. The
progress of invention however depends upon that
-of discovery, and these various inventions, etc.,
wanted by manufacturers and others probably cannot
be perfected until suitable new knowledge is found.
Every new invention has its own appropriate dis-
coveries, by means of which alone it can be perfected ;
-it was not possible to perfect the idea of an electric
telegraph before the discoveries of Volta and Oersted
•were made. According to scientific laws, out of every-
thing proceeds everything, and out of nothing, nothing
.can come, even ideas are not created. An unlimited
number of inventions cannot be made by means of a
limited amount of scientific knowledge ; and our
^present stock of such information applicable to inven-

The reason why so many patents fail. 73

tion, is very insufficient. One great reason why only
a small portion of patents are of practical value ; and
so many useless ones are taken out is, that in con-
sequence of our so-called "practical" spirit, we over-
estimate the power of invention and under-value the
discovery of new abstract truths ; because also inven-
tion has done so much, we think it will continue to do
so, but the latter depends upon a continued supply of
discoveries.

Nearly every manufacturer is aware by painful ex-
perience of the great and almost incessant variation
that occurs in the quality and properties of the mater-
ials used in his trade, and the frequent risk of failure
of his process, In the manufacture of iron, for
example, the presence of much phosphorus, sulphur,
or silicon in the ore is liable to be very detrimental to
the quality of the iron produced from it; in the manu-
facture of glass, the least quantity of iron in the
materials will seriously injure the colour of the product;
in the selection of copper for telegraph wire, if it con-
tains the least trace of arsenic, the wire will not conduct
the electricity properly. The difficulties experienced
in procuring suitable materials for a manufacturing
process are in some cases very great ; and when they
are procured, additional difficulties arise from the in-
ability of the manufacturer or his manager to analyse
them.

Every manufacturer is also aware that the difficulties
encountered in manufactures are not limited to the
substances employed, but extend to all the different

74 Difficulties encountered in manufacturing processes,

processes and stages of processes through which
these substances have to pass, and to all the forces,
tools, machinery, and appliances employed in those
processes ; in the manufacture of glass, for example,,
the greatest care has to be exercised in the making
and gradual heating of the pots in which the glass
is melted, the proportions of the materials, the con-
struction of the furnaces, the management of the heat,
and a whole host of minor conditions too numerous
to mention, all of which must be attended to with
the greatest care. In the manufacture of iron and
steel, the smelting of copper, the refining of nickel,,
the preparation and baking of porcelain, and in
many other trades, innumerable difficulties, all having
their origin in the properties of matter and forces,
continually beset the manufacturers. In some cases
difficulties occur which perplex both the workman and
the scientific man called in to his aid, and so far
from an unscientific workman being able to overcome
them, even with the aid of the scientific man, he is
unable to do so.

The hidden difficulties which beset a manufacturer
are not unfrequently so inscrutable that the present
state of knowledge in science fails to explain them.
Who can tell why it is that wire-work of brass or
German silver becomes gradually brittle by lapse of
time ? Or why varnish made in the open country has
different properties from that made in a town ? Or why
silk dyed in Lyons should possess a finer colour than
the same silk dyed by the same process in Coventry?

Other evils arising from insufficient knowledge. 75

With our present extremely imperfect knowledge of
Physical and Chemical science, we can perhaps hardly
form an idea of the amount of knowledge yet to be
discovered respecting the phenomena which manufac-
tures present.

One of the inevitable results of these difficulties in
manufacturing processes and of deficiency of know-
ledge, is the production of a large amount of goods of
an inferior quality ; and useless goods, technically
called " wasters," the cost of which has to be laid
upon the saleable ones, and thus the price of the lat-
ter is enhanced to the consumer. For instance, flint
glass discoloured by iron has sometimes to be sold at
a loss for making common enamel ; waste window
glass has to be sold as " rockery " for ornamenting
gardens, and defective articles of glass or metal have
to be re-melted.

In consequence of this want of new knowledge,
manufacturers continue to suffer losses which might
be avoided ; high prices of useful articles are main-
tained ; defects in their quality are not improved ;
preventable accidents still continue to happen ; the
health of workmen continues to suffer ; many means
of curing diseases remain unknown ; medical practice
remains full of empiricism, &c., &c.

The great sewage question is apparently in this
predicament ; we are probably trying to solve it with-
out first discovering the requisite knowledge; inventors,
engineers, and consulting chemists have racked their
brains, and have not been able to devise a satisfactory

76 Serioiis sacrifice of national iv el fare to private gain.

remedy, and meanwhile the health of the entire
population of this country is suffering. If we so
neglect the fundamental means of ameliorating our
condition we deserve to suffer. One would suppose
that cholera, contagious diseases, colliery accidents,
pollution of air and water, enormous waste of heat
from fires, and a multitude of other evils which depend
upon physical and chemical conditions, are of but
little importance, that we should so neglect one of the
most effectual means of preventing them ; and it is
perfectly clear that by neglecting to aid research, those
who gain so much money and advantage from original
science, and render no return, are unwittingly sacrifi-
cing national interests upon a large scale to personal
benefit.

The practice of some manufacturers using and
deriving great profit from new knowledge evolved
by research, without recompensing the discoverers,
sometimes causes injury to the public welfare by
preventing the publication of discoveries which have
an immediate practical application. Experience of
tliis kind has constrained me to postpone the publica-
tion of a method I have found of readily and quickly
converting lumps of white phosphorus into the red
variety in a state of powder without protracted heat
or grinding.

" What will be the next chapter of British enterprise
and invention, and who and where the men to perform
the chief part in it ? As to the work to be done, there
can be no doubt or mystery, for not a day passes

Serious defects in Agriculture and Navigation. 77

without loud complaints, indignant remonstrances,
fatal oversights, sad mis-calculations, terrible short-
comings, social or material evils to be remedied if
possible, whole masses of people, indeed whole classes
to be succoured and lifted out of the slough, and
enormous difficulties placed by nature in our way
evidently that we may exercise our wit and our virtues
in the attempt to overcome them. Here, from all
these Isles, there arises a despairing cry from agri-
culture, as if it had really reached the end of its tether,
and had found itself landed in utter helplessness and
insolvency — a bad speculation altogether. Here are
countless problems, and at the same time countless
discoveries, which if they lead to nothing else, prove
the inexhaustible nature of our dominion over the
elements. Then, for the sea, with its terrible average
of wreck and total loss running on without intermission
and with but rare abatement, who shall say there is
here no work for the discoverer and inventor who will
give his heart and soul and mind to it ? "

It is indeed high time, that by means of discoveries
which will enable us to predict with certainty the
nature of coming seasons, we shall be better enabled
to cope with adversities in agriculture ; also, that the
numerous wrecks, and the thousands of lives lost with
them every year on our coasts, should be diminished.
But these desirable results cannot be effected by in-
vention based upon insufficient knowledge ; invention
must be preceded by general as well as special re-
search, because the former often discloses important

78 Criminal neglect of physiological research.

truths which we cannot predict. Our present electric
lights in light-houses and on large ocean steamers,
had their origin, not in direct inventions or special re-
searches for the purpose, but in abstract researches
on apparently remote subjects.

It is nothing less than a national crime that proper
provision has not yet been made for investigating
scientifically the causes of famine and pestilence, also
physiology and pathology, and the discovery of the
laws which- regulate diseases and epidemics. What
can be more painful to behold than a mother and
father deprived of a whole family of five or six
children in rapid succession by scarlatina or other
contagious disease, and both the parents and
medical men utterly unable to save them ; and this is
a common occurrence. Persons who are ignorant of
science look with an abject feeling of helplessness
upon great national calamities, and even upon private
afflictions, such as a local epidemic, as if there was
absolutely no remedy, whilst scientific men believe
that by extension of knowledge, such evils might be
largely avoided or prevented.

Many persons however, actuated by the very kind-
est of motives, but insufficiently acquainted with the
necessity, conditions, results, and advantages of experi-
ments, unwittingly obstruct the discovery of new
knowledge in physiology and pathology, by attempt-
ing to prevent experiments being made upon animals.

We should not strain at a gnat and swallow a
camel. Nearly every step in life involves a choice

;
£ •*/-

Necessity of physiological research. 79

between two alternatives, and this is the case with
experiments upon living creatures, either such experi-
ments must be made, or the wholesale slaughter of
men and other animals, by pestilences, epidemics,
small-pox, foot and mouth disease, &c., must continue.
Many of the properties of living bodies, like those of
dead ones, can only be ascertained by means of ex-
periments, no other course is possible ; and the
knowledge so obtained enables us not only to prolong
the lives but also to alleviate the sufferings of all
kinds of living creatures. Nearly all our medical and
surgical knowledge has been obtained by observation
and study, either of the results of experiments made
by ourselves, or by the course of nature for us ; and
the former is often attended by immeasurably less
pain and expence than the latter. No one who has
ever made in a proper manner new experiments,
would venture to assert that valuable knowledge is
not gained by them ; and this statement is as correct
of experiments in physiology as in all the other
sciences.

The total amount of pain inflicted upon animals by
vivisection experiments in this country is infinites-
imally small — because, firstly, the proportion of ex-
perimentalists in so-called "vivisection," does not
amount to one person in one million of our inhab-
itants : — secondly, students cannot be induced to enter
upon scientific research in physiology, because such
labour is unrewarded, either by enabling them to obtain
certificates, degrees, or money. Whatever pain also,

8o Physiological research averts suffering.

is inflicted in such experiments, is by men of the
highest eminence in physiology, and therefore by the

most competent persons.

-/** *

Experimental research is an occupation requiring

an exceptional kind of ability and experience ; and
persons who 'have never made experiments, nor
studied their relation to human welfare, are largely
incompetent to determine when and how they should
be made, the real effects of them, or the value of the
knowledge they afford. To persons inexperienced in
scientific research, many experiments appear useless,
which have great practical value, either immediately
or at a later period. Our greatest curse is ignorance ;
and knowledge, by enabling us to avoid the fatal
effects of pestilences, and epidemics, is as necessary
as food to mankind. The " Anti-vivisection " move-
ment however ir> but one of the phases of the ever-
existing conflict between the advancing and retarding
sections of mankind.

Greater sympathy with suffering accompanies
greater civilization. The increased humanity of the
present age over that of previous ones, is largely due
to the discovery and extension of new scientific know-
ledge. Science, by showing more clearly to man his
true position in nature and in relation to his fellow-
men and other animals, has rendered more evident
the concrete fact, that the happiness of each depends
upon the happiness of all, and the happiness and
welfare of all upon that of each individual, It has
also operated in a more apparent, though less im-

Curative methods due to research. 8 1

portant way, by inculcating better systems of hygeine,
improved sanitary arrangements, &c., &c. It is not
to the zeal of " anti-vivisectionists," but to the well-
directed labours of experimental medical men, that
mankind are indebted for the discovery and invention
of nearly every known method of preventing and
alleviating animal suffering and of prolonging human
life. This statement is true of vaccination, the use of
chloroform in general surgery, dentistry, and mid-
wifery, of carbolic acid spray in surgical operations ;
the abolition of the practice of searing amputated
limbs with a red-hot iron ; and many other improve-
ments. Ferrier's comparatively recent vivisection
experiments have already enabled medical men to
treat more successfully those formidable diseases,
epilepsy and abcess of the brain.

What this nation badly requires, is not less experi-
mental research, but more. When famines result
from insufficiency of Solar heat, instead of investiga-
ting the conditions of the Sun's surface to enable us
to predict their occurrence and provide accordingly,
we allow them to come upon us in our unprepared
state and produce their fearful effects. When con-
tagious disease overtakes us, what do we do? Instead
of previously employing and paying scientific inves-
tigators to make experiments in physiological and
chemical science, to enable us to combat it success-
fully, we vainly attempt to apply our present stock of
chemical and physiological knowledge to ward off the
difficulty. When high price of fuel intervenes, instead

82 Our ignorant treatment of great evils.

of previously giving discoverers the means of finding
new principles relating to heat, and to chemical, and
electrical action, we ineffectually endeavour by means
of invention, to economise fuel. These are the potter-
ing, short-sighted, and ignorant ways in which " the
great English nation " temporises with great evils,
and permits national welfare to be sacrificed to pri-
vate gain, instead of employing for the discovery of
new knowledge some of that superfluous wealth which
in many instances is a curse to its possessors.

CHAPTER II.

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF MENTAL AND MORAL
PROGRESS.

It is not highly necessary after what has been
already said in these pages, to adduce much evidence
to show that scientific discoveries, either directly or
through the medium of the inventions based upon
them, have been a great cause of mental and moral
progress. As however there are many persons who
do not perceive the dependence of such progress, and
especially of moral advance, upon science, a few of
the chief relations of those subjects to each other may
be pointed out.

The dependence of mental progress upon science^
may be rendered manifest in several ways : — ist. By
showing that new scientific knowledge is continually
extending and modifying our views of existing things.
2nd. That inventions based upon scientific discoveries
have aided and extended our mental powers : — 3rd.
That mental phenomena may be made the subject of
experiment, observation, analysis, and inference : —

*NOTE. —The whole of this chapter, especially the Moral Section, is capable of
great amplification and much more copious illustration.

L L

84 General Scientific Basis of Morality.

4th. That the criteria of truth, and the mental powers
and processes employed for discovering and detecting
truth, are the same in mental as in physical science,
and, 5th. That mental action is subject to the great
principles and laws of science. And moral progress
may be proved to have a scientific basis : — 1st. By
shewing that moral actions are a class of mental
actions, and therefore subject to the same fundamental
laws and influences : — 2nd. That the discovery of new
scientific knowledge, and the use of inventions based
upon it, often conduce to morality : — 3rd. That moral
phenomena may be made the subject of experiment,
observation, analysis, and inference : — 4th. That the
criteria of truth, and the mental faculties and pro-
cesses employed, in discovering truth, are the same in
moral as in physical science : — 5th. That the funda-
mental rules of morality are subject to the great
principles of science : — 6th. That moral improvement
follows in the wake of scientific advance : — and 7th.
By showing the moral influence of experimental
research in imparting " the scientific spirit ; " pro-
moting a love of truth ; dispelling ignorance and
superstition; detecting error; imparting certainty and
accuracy to our knowledge ; inculcating obedience to-
law; producing uniformity of belief ; aiding economy
and cleanliness, promoting humanity, &c., &c. Each
of these will be treated with extreme brevity,

MENTAL PROGRESS.
The chief object of this chapter is only to shew

General Mental Progress due to research. 85

that mental action is largely consistent with the great
principles of science ; not that in our present state
of knowledge, mental phenomena can be entirely ex-
plained by them, or that mental actions involve
nothing more than physical and chemical processes.

That mental progress is advanced by scientific dis-
covery is a common circumstance. Our ideas of facts,
our knowledge of general principles, our views of man,
of nature, and of the Universe ; and even our modes
of thought, have been gradually and profoundly
changed by the new knowledge acquired by means of
scientific research. This truth is capable of being
most extensively illustrated by a multitude of facts in
the whole of the sciences, and in the arts, manufac-
tures, and other subjects dependent upon science.
For example, in astronomy, great changes, produced
by the results of scientific discovery have taken place
in our ideas respecting the magnitude of Space and of
the Heavenly bodies, the constitution, form, and
motion of the Earth, the functions of the Sun and
Moon, the distances of the Sun and fixed Stars, the
nature of eclipses and comets ; and a great many
other matters. In terrestrial physics, the mental
advances have been equally great in our ideas respect-
ing the causes of tides and of winds, the pressure of
the atmosphere, the existence and course of the Gulf
Stream, the physical conditions of the Equator and
Poles, the conditions upon which day and night,
summer and winter depend, the depth of the ocean,
the height of the atmosphere, the cause of rainbows, of

86 Dogma and Empiricism precede Science.

rain, hail, snow, mist and dew, of thunder and light-
ning, the composition of air, water, mineral, and
organic substances, and other most numerous and
varied phenomena. In the subjects of heat, light,
electricity, magnetism, chemistry, vegetable and animal
physiology, psychology and morality, and the more
concrete subjects depending upon them, such as
politics, trade, commerce, government, &c., our ideas
have equally advanced, in consequence of scientific
research ; and to fully describe the mental progress
resulting from discovery in nearly all branches of
human knowledge would require a series of books to
be written on the History of all the Sciences.

Other causes also, which I need hardly mention,
besides scientific discovery, have of course contributed
to the mental progress of mankind. We arrive at
true ideas, not only by the more certain and syste-
matic process employed in scientific research, but
7 largely also by the uncertain method of trusting to
; instinct and habit, by adopting dogmatic opinions,
and by the semi-scientific plan of following empirical
rules.

Dogma and empiricism, in nearly all subjects, has
rendered immense service to mankind. Contempora-
neously with the progress produced by new knowledge,
the mental condition of man has been maintained and
prevented from receding, by the combined influence
of hereditary mental proclivity, acquired habit, pro-
mulgation of dogmatic opinions and empirical rules,
and by previously known verified truth. Religious

Mental Power extended by Inventions. 87

belief has thus been the forerunner of Science.
Dogma and empiricism are indispensable agents of
civilization ; they cannot be dispensed with by the
great mass of mankind, who have not the time at
command, nor possess the other means, necessary for
acquiring verified knowledge. They afford rough and
ready guides and useful " rule of thumb " methods,
though less certain and less accurate than those
afforded by verified and definite science.

That various inventions, based upon scientific
discoveries, have greatly aided and extended our
mental powers is quite certain. The discovery of the
properties of a mixture of solution of nutgalls and
green vitriol, has, through the invention of ink, ex-
ercised an immense influence in promoting the mental
developement of mankind ; and the discovery of the
properties of esparto grass and other materials for
making paper has contributed to this result. Every
discovery also resulting in inventions which facilitated
the transmission of intelligence has had a similar
effect. Amongst these are magnetism, which, in the
mariner's compass greatly assisted navigation and the
conveyance of letters by sea ; and the steam engine
which facilitated the transmission of letters by land
and by water ; the electric telegraph, the telephone,
and other contrivances for transmitting ideas, have
also greatly promoted mental advance. The steam
engine, by largely abolishing physical drudgery, gave
time for study and mental and moral improvement.
It has been said that " it is impossible to lay down a

88 Intellectual Influence of Science.

railway without creating an improved intellectual
influence. It is probable that Watt and Stephenson
will eventually modify the opinions of mankind, almost
as profoundly as Luther and Voltaire." Photography
has exercised an immense intellectual influence of an
improved kind, by making common to all mankind*
views of the beautiful scenery of all parts of our globe,
and portraits of individuals of all nations and of ail
classes of society. Processes of printing from electro-
type plates, pictures and letter-press, upon the paper
wrappers, used by grocers and other tradesmen, have
also carried into the homes of millions of poor persons
truthful ideas and an improved intellectual influence.
The invention of steel pens, of which a thousand
millions are made yearly in Birmingham alone, must
also have considerably aided intellectual progress.
The various calculating machines used by merchants,
the copying presses, papyrographs, and the numerous
inventions for copying and multiplying letters and
circulars and for domestic printing, have saved intel-
lectual toil, and promoted the diffusion of intelligence-
These are only a few of the numerous ways in which
inventions based upon scientific discoveries, have
resulted in mental progress.

Less perhaps has been done in the way of actual
definite scientific experiments upon mental actions
and processes than in almost any other department of
science, and this is partly accounted for by the fact
that the other sciences require to be largely advanced
before we can use them to examine mental action,

Recent experiments on Mental Action. 89

and partly also because (as occasionally happens) the
latter has been a neglected subject of research.
During the past few years however, various experi-
mental investigations have been made, especially by
Donders in Holland, and Mosso in Turin, for the
purpose of elucidating the physical conditions of
mental action ; and it has been found that -instead of
an act of thought being instantaneous, as was formerly
believed, it requires a variable time.* Numerous
desultory experiments made upon dreamers, and with
•drugs, alcohol, &c., upon persons in the waking state,
also prove that mental phenomena are amenable to
.scientific research. F. Galton has even proposed ex-
periments and methods for measuring the mental
faculties of different persons.")- The effects of exciting
different parts of the brain of animals by means of
electric currents, and the localization of the functions
of the brain effected by the experiments of Ferrier,
Hirtzig and others, also tend to throw further light
upon mental phenomena. The fact alone that mental
actions and conditions may be made the subject of
experiment, and consequently of observation, com-
parison, analysis and inference, proves that they may
be rendered sources of new facts and principles, and
are therefore within the domain of science. As the
•dependence of mental phenomena upon physical con-
ditions has been clearly demonstrated, an extensive
reduction of them to scientific laws is only a question
-of time and labour.

* NOTE.— See also p. 95. t NOTE. — Athenaeum, Aug. 3, 1877. p. 242.

90 Criteria of Truth in Mental Science.

The principles of nature and the modes of mental
action are the same for all men. It necessarily
follows from the essential nature of truth and the in-
variability of the chief methods of detecting it, that
the criteria of truth in mental science, and the mental
powers and processes by which truth is arrived at and
detected in that science, are essentially the same as in
the physiological, chemical, and physical ones. In
each of these subjects, we first, either with or without
the aid of experiment, make observations, record
facts, compare them, and draw conclusions from our
comparisons ; we also group the facts, and the con-
clusions, in every possible way, and then draw other
conclusions ; we also analyse, combine, and permu-
tate the various truths arrived at, and cross examine
the evidence in every possible manner in order to ex-
tract from it the greatest amount of new knowledge.
And in each case we employ as the criteria of truth,
the test of consistency with the whole of the evidence
bearing upon the case, and especially with the great
principles of science. We determine what is true,,
chiefly by comparison with those principles, because
they are the most firmly established true ones and
the most universal. There is no royal road to truth,
and no special mental faculty for detecting it in any
subject ; and it is in consequence of our mental
faculties being so very finite that we have no easier
way of arriving at truth.

No dogmatic teaching can ever, except by accident,
fully explain to man the true nature of mind ; and

Source of Error in studying Mental Action. 91

only in proportion as man becomes enlightened by-
extension of new scientific knowledge, especially in
physiology, will he be able to view himself in a true
aspect apart from his consciousness. Science pene-
trates deeper than metaphysical speculation, into the
nature of mental action, chiefly because metaphysics
deals only with old ideas, whilst science furnishes us
with new experience and therefore with new concep-
tions and wider evidence.

Fallacies are very prevalent, every subject of human
study is liable to a very large class of errors arising
from the extremely imperfect state of our knowledge,
and in very few subjects is our ignorance as great as
in that of mental and moral phenomena. Every
different subject of study also, has, in consequence of
its special peculiarities, its own peculiar class of
fallacies, into which the student of it is likely to be
led, unless he is previously guarded against them.
In accordance with this truth, the study of man's
nature, especially the mental and moral portions, is
particularly liable to a class of errors arising from the
circumstance, that the phenomena to be observed and
the observing power are intimately connected to-
gether, each influencing and disturbing the other-
The obstacles to our arriving at truth in the study of
mental and moral actions, are greater and more
frequent, the more nearly and intimately related the
phenomena to be observed and contemplated, are to
the observing and contemplating faculty, or rather to
the contemplative action. When the two mental

92 Consciousness a great source of error.

actions are extremely intimate, as when attention is
directed to the action of will (which is itself a con-
scious act of attention) undisturbed thought becomes
very difficult ; and when further, the contemplative
faculty attempts to contemplate itself, as when con-
sciousness attempts to observe consciousness, in order
to define it, the attempt results in almost complete
failure, probably because the two actions (observing
and being observed) being opposite in kind, cannot
' coexist at the same time in the same structure.
Knowledge of the exact nature of consciousness
therefore, will probably only be arrived at by indirect
means, when physiological and other knowledge is
sufficiently advanced.

Consciousness, when uncorrected by sufficient
knowledge and inference, is a great source of error.
y That which we feel, we think exists whether it does
or not, until the subject is correctly explained to us.
The incessant and irresistible obtrusion of conscious-
ness exercises dominion over every mind, even of our
greatest thinkers, and causes disturbance and inter-
ruption in nearly every train of thought. It is largely
the cause of some of our most general ideas and
emotions and insensibly influences our views of man
and nature. It produces true impressions as well as
erroneous ones. It is a cause of the feeling that an
occult spirit exists within us independent of our
material structure. Combined with the almost equally
persistent impression of the uniformity of nature, it
largely produces the idea that the spirit within us,

Mind, a single kind of power. 93

will live and be active for ever. And by uniting with
the frequent impressions of failure of our efforts and
desire for more perfect enjoyment, it largely originates
the idea of everlasting happiness.

It is in accordance with modern scientific know-
ledge, to view the mind, not as a collection of distinct
faculties, but rather as a single kind of power, like
each of the physical forces, having several different
modes of action ; and as that which perceives, thinks,
and wills. Its oneness is shewn by its inability to be
simultaneously occupied by several diverse feelings,
thoughts, or volitions, and by our incapacity to think

* of many varied ideas at once ; the more ideas also or
objects we attempt to perceive at once, the less we

/ realize of each. In proportion as the mind is engaged
upon one idea, so is it also unable to be occupied
with another. Strong feelings exclude intellectual
action. The mind can only execute several actions
at a time, provided they have been rendered more or
less automatic by habit, &c., but as all mental acts
are in different degrees imperfectly automatic, and
require more or less attention, and each individual
mind is limited in its power, every such act withdraws
a portion of attention from the more engrossing ideas.
Power of mind and power of maintaining attention
are nearly synonymous.

The recognised fundamental elements of mind are
Receptivity and Perception of impression : Retentive-
ness of impression : Perception of agreement (or
similarity) of impression: and Perception of difference

94 Dependence of Mind upon natural causes.

of impression. All purely mental acts appear to be
resolvable into these.

Many persons still entertain the idea that mental
actions are largely independent of the natural condi-
tions to which physiological, chemical, and physical
phenomena are subject. The unscientific mind is
readily beguiled by easy schemes of mental action, or
simple systems of mental and moral philosophy,
unaware that great abstract truths often require deep
thought to discover them, or even to perceive them
when discovered and published. "A false notion,

) which is clear and precise, will always meet a greater
number of adherents in the world than a true principle
which is obscure." It is not until unscientific persons
have become used to advanced scientific ideas and
nomenclature, and knowledge as so far progressed as
to enable thinking men to illustrate those ideas freely

/ in familiar language, that great abstract truths are
believed by the public. The ordinary and simple
theory of the operations of the human mind is, that
they often arise without any cause, and are frequently
not obedient to ordinary influences, and this idea is
still entertained and promulgated even by some of
our most popular ministers of truth. It is therefore
necessary in order to further prove that new scientific
knowledge is really a basis of mental progress, to
point out a few of the chief ways in which mental
action essentially depends on scientific principles, and
to adduce a few instances in which other substances
than brain exhibit essentially similar phenomena. To

Mind is subject to ordinary laws. 95

shew this however in a more satisfactory manner
would require a large treatise to be written upon the
subject.

The human brain and mind are evidently subject
to the ordinary laws of matter and energy. Recep-
tivity and retentiveness of impression is not only a

S property of brain, but of all solid matter without ex-
ception. Moser's pictures, and Chinese mirrors, the

/ impressions on each being reproducible by warm
breath, are examples of this. And as these two pro-
perties are fundamental elements of mind, they must
be present in and essential to, every mental action.
. All phenomena require time and all matter occupies
space ; thought and brain are no exception to this.
Whilst all persons say " I must have time to think,"
many believe that thought is instantaneous. Time is
a necessary condition of all thought, and therefore of
all comparison, inference, imagination, and mental
analysis ; it takes time even to form an idea, or draw
an inference from it, and the two cannot be formed
simultaneously. Professor Bonders, of Utrecht, has
invented what he terms a Noematachograph for
registering the amount of time occupied in mental
processes , and by the aid of that instrument has
ascertained that the time required by a man of
/ middle age to perform a single act of simple thought
is about one twenty-fifth part of a second. It has
also been ascertained that the time required is longer
in some persons than in others ; and longer if the

96 Dependence of Mind upon Brain.

subject of thought is one with which the thinker is
not familiar. Mosso, by means of an instrument
which he calls a Plethysmograph, has shewn, that
during mental action, either in the waking state, or in
dreaming, there is a greater amount of blood deter-
mined to the brain, and more during difficult than
during easy mental action. These are instances of
scientific research casting a light upon mental pro-
cesses.

Coexistence of matter and energy is another great
truth which appears to be applicable to all nature ;
wherever there is matter, there is either active or
stored up power ; and as particular forms of energy
are in some cases most exhibited by particular kinds
of substance, (as magnetism by iron), so mind is
associated with living brain. As also we never see
the physical powers exhibited except by material
substance, so have we never yet observed mental
action in a space devoid of material. The most
* perfect vacuum yet produced contains many millions
ot particles of substance in each cubic inch. Of all
the countless number of scientific phenomena observed
since men have been able to reliably investigate, not
one has afforded us conclusive evidence of mental
action entirely independent of these conditions. In
accordance also with the usual truth in science, that
complicated action requires complex structures; mind,
being the most intricate action, is manifested by the
most complicated body.

Mind, like each of the physical forces may be

Mental action depends upon change. 97

viewed as a mode of energy ; it is essentially dy-
namic ; activity or change, within or without us,
appears to be the original source of all our mental
impressions, and the cause of their re-excitement in
an act of memory. A man's mind, being continually^,
excited by circumstances, must be active whether he ^
will or no, and if it does not possess sufficient truthful
/ ideas entirely to occupy it, it must be more or less
occupied with erroneous ones. " We can neither feel,
nor know, without a transition or change of state —
and every cognition, must be viewed as in relation to
some other feeling, or cognition," (Bain. Mental and
Moral Science, p. 83); i.e. the mental effect of impres-
sions upon us depends upon our immediately previous
mental state ; consciousness and perception appear to
be based upon cerebral change or activity ; after
strong excitement of consciousness an increased
amount of acid products is found in the secretions.
" It is a general law of the mental constitution, more
or less recognised by inquirers into the human mind,
that change of impression is essential to consciousness
in every form," (Bain. Emotions and Will, 3rd edi.
p. 550). A sufficient degree also of such change is a
necessary condition of conscious perception ; it is the
stronger or more rapid only of mental changes that
excite our consciousness.

We perceive nearly all things by means of a dif-
ference of impression which they make upon us ; by
contrast. That which makes no such difference of
impression, such as the great uniformities of time and /

98 Physical actions depend upon differences,

space, makes no immediate impression upon us. We
only know of the existence of those uniformities by
inference from our perceptions of sequences or of
relative difference. Although the Earth moves at the
rate of 62,000 miles an hour in its orbit, consciousness
does not perceive it. If also there was no error, we
should be less immediately able to discern truth,
without pain we should lose much of the enjoyment
of pleasure. Without the contrast of imperfection we
could not directly appreciate perfection.

This principle of " relativity," or of change of im-
pression, operates both in the phenomena of dead and
living matter and in those of mind ; the selenium in a
photophone is kept in a state of motion or activity,
v not by a beam of uniform light, but only by one
which changes; electrical action is excited by a rela-
tive difference of friction, of temperature, of chemical
action, &c. ; chemical action also often results from a
relative difference of property of two bodies. That
the most inscrutable phenomenon of mind, viz., con-
sciousness, is largely dependent upon relative physical
.and chemical conditions, is proved by the powerful
influence which alcohol, chloroform, opium, haschish,
and other substances, have in exciting or depressing
it. These facts prove that excitement of conscious-
ness or mental action depends upon precisely the
same general condition, viz. : change of impression,
as the excitement of some of the physical forces ; and
that mind possesses a similar property to the physical
forces of being changed by inequality of impression.

Mind depends upon physical conditions. 99

Whilst copious evidence is available to shew that the
mind is excitable by physical causes, no more conclu-
sive proof exists that a mental impression arises
without a natural cause, than that a physical one, such
,as a photographic impression, arises in that way.
Abundant evidence of non-creation of ideas out of
nothing might be adduced ; even imagination and
invention are subject to this limit, because an un-
limited number of new conceptions cannot be formed
from a limited number of previous ideas.
, The dependence of the mind (like any other mode
of energy) upon physical conditions, is further proved
by the fact that the mental and moral states of a

'. man are largely governed by sensation ; if the latter
is unhealthy it makes the mind so, and it makes some
difference what the part of the body is in which the
sensation exists ; most commonly it is the viscera.
The mind is also intimately dependent upon the
physical condition of the brain, and is largely affected
by the quantity and quality of the blood in that
organ.

The most fundamental principle which pervades
every one of the sciences, and agrees with the actions
of every natural form of energy without exception,

/ including mind, is, that of consistency or non-contra-
diction. No machine or scientific apparatus of any
/ kind can perform two contradictory acts at the same
time. It is both a physiological and psychological
fact, that we cannot experience two contradictory
-sensations, nor perceive two contradictory ideas at the

M M

ioo Contradictory actions cannot co-exist.

same instant. We can neither feel, perceive, nor
observe, one thing, whilst we are feeling, perceiving,
or observing, one of a contradictory nature ; nor can
we perform any two contradictory acts of comparison,
inference, imagination, or volition, simultaneously.
As also two mental actions are often not exactly
alike, or entirely harmonious, they must so far as they
are really contradictory, be mutually exclusive ; and
one of them must partly prevent the other, the
strongest one prevailing, and this general truth is
commonly though not explicitly, recognised in the
maxim, that to do anything well, we must do only
one thing at a time. In accordance with the univer-
sal truth, that contradictions cannot co-exist, it is well-
v known that one disease frequently expels another
from our frame, and the action of counter-irritants is
based upon the same principle. The fortitude of
martyrs may probably be explained by this power of
one set of ideas and feelings to exclude another, and
the facts of mental physiology afford plenty of other
examples.

It is probably because we cannot simultaneously
perform two contradictory actions, that we cannot
contemplate consciousness, or think of an idea and at
the same time think of that act of thought. In ac-
cordance with this, even Newton, and other great
geniuses, have been unable to accurately describe the
mental processes by means of which they arrived at
their most difficult results. In consequence also of
this, we cannot define consciousness, and are often

$*i
ftfc'V'

Knowledge of Mind requires knowledge of Science. I o r

unable to directly observe or analyse our mental
actions, especially those of a very abstruse or com-
plex kind. Much of the knowledge of the operations
of our mind, we are therefore obliged to obtain by
indirect means ; by analogies, and inferences from
the phenomena of nature, &c., and in this way our
knowledge of mental action largely depends upon our
acquaintance with physical and chemical science, and
can only advance as it advances. To clearly under-
stand one subject we are often obliged to study
several others. Ignorance of science in general, and
of cerebral physiology in particular, is the chief
obstacle to our acquiring a more accurate knowledge
of mind.

Next to consistency, the great principle of causa-
tion constitutes the most essential part of all natural
truth, and to deny the operation of this principle in
particular cases of mental action, simply because we,
with our very finite powers, cannot in the extremely
imperfect state of our knowledge ; yet fully explain
some of the most difficult, complex, transient, and
ever-changing phenomena of will and consciousness,
is contrary to the most weighty evidence. "The
Will " is a conscious mental effort to effect an object,
the idea of which is already in the mind, and being a
mental " effort " it absorbs the mind and thereby
incapacitates it at the moment from observing its own
action.

If any phenomenon (such as mental action) is essen-
tially dependent upon another, it must be connected

/

IO2 Mental action depends upon causation.

with it in a never-failing or indissoluble manner, so
that when the one occurs the other is always present,
otherwise it would not be essentially dependent. The
only known connections of this kind are those causa-
tion and continuity of phenomena, according to which
every phenomenon has a cause, and all phenomena
are indissolubly connected in endless series. The
evidence of the truth of these principles is so vast,
that even all mankind thinking through all ages, and
after having made an almost infinite number of
definite experiments and observations, have never yet
met with a single well verified instance of their failure;
and we are therefore justified in inferring that they
are universal. There are however instances in the
physical and chemical sciences, as well as in
mental action, where the dependence of phenomena
upon those principles is not verr apparent, and has
not yet been sufficiently proved, but it is probably in
consequence of our imperfect knowledge and limited
faculties, that we are unable as yet to fully trace such
dependence. The history of science, abundantly
proves that we should not assume that a phenomenon
arises without a natural cause, simply for the reason
that it is very difficult to trace its origin, but wait
patiently for more knowledge respecting it. It is
unphilosophic and contrary to reason to attribute to
occult agencies, effects which may be explicable by
ordinary causes, or to refuse to believe in more
abstruse causes where the assumption of simple ones
is contradicted by some of the evidence.

Mental actions dtie to complex causes. 103

The principle of causation forms the basis of many
minor ones, such as selection, evolution, differentia-
tion, &c. Plurality of causes also is a very common
circumstance in all the sciences, and especially in
concrete phenomena, and in the complex ones of
animal life ; the arrival of a ship for example at a
distant port, is a result of many conditions. Similarly
with most of our mental actions, they are compounds-
of feeling and intellect, and produced by many causes,
such as hereditary tendency, acquired habit, internal
and external mental excitants, dogmatic belief, know-
ledge of empirical rules, and occasionally of verified
principles. Several of these causes also frequently
conspire to produce a single idea or decision.

Various general principles of lesser magnitude arise
from the combined action of two or more of the
greater ones, and these also appear to operate in
mental actions as well as in physical ones. Thus by
the combined influence of causation and of the prin-
ciple that every phenomenon occupies time, "effects
often lag behind their causes ; " and in some cases-
during a long period. The greatest heat of summer
for example usually occurs several weeks after mid-
summer. The mental effects of early mistakes are
often not fully experienced until old age. The de-
cline of a nation also follows a long time behind the
period of action of the chief causes which produce it.

Although effects are indissolubly connected with
their causes, they frequently do not occur in an active
form until a long period after them. In such cases

1 04 Mental energy can be stored up.

they are stored up in what is termed a potential or
latent state, ready for liberation at a future occasion,
when the suitable conditions are present ; the storage
of chemical power in gunpowder, of solar heat in
coal, and its subsequent liberation in our fires, are
suitable examples. The principle of deferred activity
and storing up of power, occurs also in vital and
mental phenomena ; potential heat is stored up in
our food, and is afterwards evolved by oxidation in
our tissues. Muscular power is stored up during sleep,
ready to be evolved during labour. The storage also
of cerebral impressions, and cerebral energy, ready to
call forth ideas, and thereby powerful emotions, by
the exciting action of memory, may also be viewed as
an instance of similar kind belonging to mental phen-
omena. A new and striking instance of the storage
of energy has been shewn in Faure's improved form
of secondary voltaic battery, in which the most
powerful voltaic current may be (at least practically)
stored up (in a box containing lead plates immersed
in dilute sulphuric acid) and conveyed to a distance
with little loss, and then liberated.

Exciting causes operate very extensively in mental
actions as well as in physical ones, a mere look or
word from an eloquent speaker will excite the passions
and liberate the muscular power of a multitude.
Every part of the human body, especially the muscles
and nerve centres, is a store-house of power always
ready to be set free by the slightest suitable causes ;
this is strongly illustrated in the irrepressible activity

Mental effects proportionate to causes. 105

of children, and in the excitable passions of young
men and women. The more immediate cause of this
power is the oxidation of assimilated food ; and the
source of power in the food is the heat of the Sun
stored up in the plants and animals they have eaten.

The subsequent liberation of power under the in-
fluence, often of very slight causes, long after the
original cause has ceased to act, has led us to con-
clude erroneously that causes are not always propor-
tional to effects. Proportionality of effect to cause
appears to be universal ; it probably operates in
mental as well as in physical actions, our faith in
education as a means of intelligence is based upon
this ; the more complete the education of a particular
individual, the greater usually is his degree of in-
telligence. Proportionality of cause to effect is
apparently disobeyed not only in physical but also in
mental phenomena. Throughout the whole realm of
nature, minute circumstances often act as exciting,
deflecting, and guiding causes, and contribute to the
production of apparently disproportionate effects.
Thus a spark will discharge the largest cannon ; a
touch determine the most distant electric signal ; a
word or look, excite the strongest emotions ; the
little change of position of a railway point will direct
a train either to distant North or South; the minute
change of contact of the telegraph switch, will deter-
mine the signal to places wide asunder ; one false
idea also at a critical moment will often lead a man
•or woman to ruin ; and in all these classes of cases,

io6 Continuity of mental and other actions.

whilst trifling causes appear to produce great effects ;
the real causes are the stored up latent powers set
free or directed. It is astonishing how small a
circumstance will excite an idea, and deflect the
entire current of our thoughts ; and it is equally
surprising what great physical and chemical effects
are often started by most minute exciting or deflec-
ting conditions ; the explosion of seven tons of
dynamite at Hell-gate, near New York, by the
pressure of a child's finger closing an electric circuit
is a suitable example.

Every phenomenon therefore whether physical or
mental, is probably connected in an indissoluble
manner with some preceding phenomenon, either im-
mediately in point of time, or remotely through some
static condition, usually that of stored up power. In
this sense the great principle of continuity of phen-
omena appears to be universal, and the present state
of the Universe is said to implicitly or potentially
contain all the future states of the Universe. Mind
also in this way, like each of the physical forces, often
acts as a link in an endless chain of causes and effects,,
and is connected with non-mental phenomena in ac-
cordance with the great principles of science.

Science has demonstrated what has been termed
the "Convertibility of Forces," or, that when one form
of energy disappears, another form (or forms) of
energy, and in precisely equivalent amount, is pro-
duced in its stead, either in a latent or active state.
The equivalent quantities of the various forms of

Mind obeys the law of action and re-action. 107

energy have also been discovered by actual experi-
ment and measurement. A pound weight falling
through 772 feet gives forth as much energy as would
(in the form of heat) raise the temperature of one
pound of water one Fahrenheit degree. We know
that so much mechanical power is equal also to so
much electric current, chemical action, &c., and a
large amount of evidence exists to show that these
transformations of energy occur in all the organs of
living creatures, and in obedience to the law of their
equivalents. How far mental power is a " mode of
energy " transformable, and obedient to the laws of
equivalence, are interesting questions for future
research.

The mechanical principle of action and reaction is
another which can be traced in mental as well as in
physical phenomena. Mental excitement is often
succeeded by mental depression, " after pleasure
follows pain." The power of mental self-guidance
and self-education is largely dependent upon the two
well known scientific principles of latent energy, and -
action and reaction. We are able to liberate energy,
not only in cases where it will influence inanimate
matter but also ourselves. The principle of self-
guidance is not restricted to living creatures, nor is
self-regulation limited to mental power. The prin-
ciple of self-regulation operates in clocks, watcher,
musical boxes, the governors of steam engines, water
regulators, gas regulators, &c., &c., and upon an
immense scale in the movements of the heavenly

io8 Mind indirectly influences itself.

bodies. With the electric locomotive, the greater the
load it has to draw, or the steeper the incline it has
to ascend, the more strongly does it exert its strength,
up to the full limits of its power. Neither in physical
nor in mental actions can a body or force usually act
directly upon itself to change its state whether of
activity or rest. In both classes of cases however we
meet with plenty of instances where, a body by an
.almost imperceptible expenditure of energy on its own
part either alters some surrounding conditions, or
•excites a powerful liberation of energy in another
body which then reacts upon it to change its state.
In this way the action of clock-work in the self-
exploding apparatus of a torpedo liberates at a par-
ticular moment a spring, and causes an explosion
which destroys the apparatus. Similarly, whilst a
man, in many cases, is unable to directly alter his
mental state, to increase or diminish his mental
activity, to cause sleep, &c., he is able indirectly to
change his mental condition by drinking stimulants or
by adopting means of self-education ; and to induce
sleep by means of opium, suitable exercise, &c.

The principles of indestructibility or conservation
of matter and energy, flow from the preceding ones,
and are exhibited in mental actions as well as in
physical ones. Whilst the universal experience of
mankind has not yet afforded us a single well verified
instance of actual creation or destruction of matter or
energy, it has supplied us with plenty of examples of
apparent destruction and creation of each of them.

Mind obeys the First law of Motion. 109

But scientific knowledge corrects the uncertain testi-
mony of consciousness ; whilst we see coal burn and
be apparently destroyed, science proves to us that the
elements composing it remain undiminished. We
observe also that the heat of the fire dissipates and is
apparently lost for ever ; but science again proves
that it is either stored up in the latent state, ready to
be again liberated at a future time, or else converted
into other forms of energy. A given atom of matter
or a portion of energy, therefore, to the best of our
knowledge, continues and persists for ever. As we
cannot either create or destroy matter so also can we
not create or annihilate energy, and this truth
probably holds good with regard to mental as well as
to physical and chemical power. Great changes of
state in bodies (as in the combustion of wood &c.) have
led us to erroneously think that the substances are
destroyed; and great apparent differences of property,
such as those of diamond and charcoal, have led us
similarly to conclude that they are entirely distinct
and independent of each other when they are not.

As the cerebrum of man is composed of matter,
and during excitement, its parts are active, we might
confidently predict that its particles obey the First law
of Motion, viz. : that a body in a state of rest or
motion will continue in that state of rest or motion
until some cause arise to prevent it. So it has been
found that the action of the vital and mental forces
have a degree of persistence, like the physical ones,
It has been experimentally found that portions of

1 10 Mind obeys the principle of Heredity.

living bone transplanted to fleshy parts of animals
where there was no bone, continued to grow for a
time by a life of their own, and increased by forma-
tion of additional bone, like a crystal grows in its
medium ; but after a time they diminished and disap-
peared. In a similar manner we are all of us aware
of the persistency of ideas, even in opposition to the
will, after the cause of them has been removed.
Sometimes we cannot retain an idea because of the
persistence of others ; and at other times we cannot
.get rid of one, for a similar reason. Our mental
habits also have often very great persistence.

The principle of heredity may be viewed as a
result of the First law of Motion, and appears as Per-
sistency of state, either of structure, form, or mode of
action. It appears both in inanimate bodies, living
structures, and in mental phenomena; in the latter, as
hereditary mental peculiarities. The principle of Per-
sistency of structure and Heredity of form and
property, during repeated or even continual dissolu-
tion and aggregation of a material substance, is more
or less manifest nearly throughout the whole of
nature. In the formation of crystals it is clearly
seen ; each crystallizable substance will only grow
into its own shape or shapes ; each particle of com-
mon salt, during an endless series of successive
solutions and aggregations into the solid state, always
forms a more or less perfect cube ; that of silica a
hexagon ; and so on throughout the entire series of
thousands of different crystalline bodies. As each

Crystals obey the principle of Heredity. 1 1 1

form of crystal only produces crystals of like form and
property (or at most in certain cases a limited number
of modified forms, as in the instance of calcic car-
bonate, &c.) so also each seed, both of animals and
vegetables, only produces its own particular essential
shape and collection of functions. The same principle
shews itself in the transmission of particular types of
disease, and of eccentricities of organization, from one
generation to another of animals. Peculiar malfor-
mations of body and characteristics of mind often
persist in families from generation to generation.
This persistency or heredity of structure and of
property is not limited to solid bodies, but exists also
in liquids : " The effect of vaccine virus upon the
liquid blood, in producing a permanent and organic
change in its constitution and character, which con-
tinues to exercise a protective influence against
small-pox, in the great mass of cases, through a long
life, during which time the blood must have under-
gone, many thousands, if not millions of changes and
modifications." (F. Winslow. "Obscure diseases of
Brain and Mind," page 432). The same persistency of
structure and property of structure, has even been
detected • in vapours ; the vapour of red iodide of
mercury for example, deposits only crystals of red
iodide, whilst that of the yellow deposits only yellow
{see Gmelin's Handbook of Chemistry, vol. I, p. 100.)
We often appear to mentally select when we only
yield to causes acting upon us, i.e.t to the strongest
influence or motive. That " self-preservation is the

112 Inanimate substances appear to select.

first law of nature," is not only true of living-
creatures, but largely also of dead substances. Inani-
mate as well as animate matter, appears to usually
select what is good for itself. Apparent selection,
which is manifested in the phenomena of instinct, is
exhibited not only by brain, but by all material
substances. Acids appear to select bases, North
magnetism rejects North and prefers South magnetism.
Also if a piece of zinc is put into a mixed solution of
the nitrates of silver, magnesium, calcium, strontium,
barium, lithium, sodium, potassium, and rubidium, it
will select the silver only with which to form a
" metallic tree," and reject all the other metals.
Everything which aggregates or grows to a definite
shape, appears to select its material ; if a crystal of a
particular salt is placed in a mixture of saturated
solutions of different salts, it will only select and
assimilate to itself suitable material, either particles
of the same composition as itself, or those which are
isomorphous with it, i.e. belonging to the same crys-
talline system. In living bodies also, the same
principle operates ; Living tissues, whether of animals
or vegetables, usually select from their nutrient fluids,
and assimilate, particles only of those kinds of matter
which are suitable for their structure ; in this way, a
bone assimilates lime and phosphoric acid from the
multitude of different substances conveyed to it by
the blood. And in all these cases, the selecting
material appears to act as if it possessed the powers
of instinct, perception, comparison, judgment, and

Self -repair of Crystals. 1 1 3

volition. The act of self-repair is clearly connected
with this, and is not limited to living structures ; Sir
David Brewster observed that if a portion of the
surface of a perfect crystal of alum is very slightly
abraded by dissolving a film from it, and the crystal
be then immersed during a very brief period in a
saturated solution of alum, the abraded portion repairs
itself. The subjects of "malformation of crystals,"
and " diseases of crystals " have been scientifically
investigated. The power of selection (or rather of
apparent selection) is no doubt a result of the com-
bined action of causation and of the inherent
properties of bodies, and depends, like consciousness,
upon difference of impression, the strongest suitable
influence determining. If apparent selection can thus
be performed by inanimate matter, we should not,
except for a very sufficient reason, assume the
existence in living creatures, of a special occult power
to perform the same function. In the selection of
ideas also the intellect acts according to the purely
scientific method.

We frequently appear to mentally adapt ourselves
to particular circumstances when we are really deter-
mined by causes ; and this apparent adaptation is
also seen in ordinary physical and chemical phenomena
The course of a river for instance, adapts itself to the
configuration of the country through which it flows,
and if it cannot pass wholly by one channel, as in
seasons of flood, or on occasions of accidental obstruc-
tion, it travels through several ; and a similar result

ii 14 Physical basis of mental evolution.

-occurs with the flow of the blood when an artery is
tied or becomes obstructed. A plant when growing
in a dark recess, bends itself towards the light as if it
preferred light ; and its roots adapt themselves to the
iforms of existing obstacles. A decapitated frog jumps
.away from a source of irritation, as if he still possessed
^sensation, volition, and choice. A man seeking his
•way through a crowd avoids the course in which the
>the throng is densest. The human mind also, chooses
.as it were, the easiest way of solving a problem, and
•usually adapts itself to altered circumstances.

The principle of evolution also operates both in
iphysical and mental actions, and is a result of that
of causation. Complexity of structure and function
'is evolved out of simplicity of composition and
^property by plurality of causes and conditions. For
instance, many complex forms of crystals of ice
.are produced from water. Calcspar crystallizes in
more than one hundred varieties of form, (all derived
from an obtuse rhombohedron) under the influence of
,a number of slightly different conditions of temper-
.ature, impurities in the solution, &c. The most com-
plex bodies are evolved out of the simplest, the bodily
•frame of man himself (and that of other animals) is
constructed of less than twenty of the elementary
substances. The same simple substances are capable
-of yielding very different and more complex bodies
•under different conditions ; thousands of different
^chemical compouuds are composed of hydrogen,
•oxygen, and carbon only. In the development of

Appearance often differs from reality.

living forms from ova, the ultimate form produced
does not exist in the germ, any more than a crystal
exists in its solution, but is a natural consequence of
the forces acting in and upon the germ, like the
cubical form of a crystal of common salt is a result of
the forces acting in its constituents under the con-
ditions of its environment, especially those of pressure
and temperature. The extent to, and manner in
which, the force and principle operate, depend upon
the material substance, and its conditions internal
and external.

It is a common circumstance, both in physical,
mental, and moral subjects, for the apparent to be
the very opposite of the real. This general truth has
been repeatedly illustrated in an incidental manner in
this book, and need not be much further elucidated.
Phenomena are none the less real, however, because
they are not readily manifest ; our earth is as much
tied to the sun by the invisible power of gravity, as if
it was attached to it by visible material chains. Mis-
taking the apparent for the real, largely explains the
persistency of certain beliefs, and why it is that per-
sons unacquainted with science, cling to self-decep-
tion, and resist some of the most firmly established
truths. The more evident but untrue explanation is
believed, whilst the less apparent but true one is
rejected. It is the chief cause of the belief that " the
will is a supernatural power." To a scientific man
however, apparent contradictions are not unfrequently
a sign of truth ; too accurate results sometimes indi-

N N

1 1 6 Sympathetic action a common property.

cate that they have been artificially made to appear
correct.

Sympathetic action or propagation of similar influ-
ence by immediate impulse, is a property of all the
natural forms of energy, as well as of mind. Similar
actions are propagated thus in all kinds of dead
substances, as well as in the living brain. Matter is
sympathetic to sound in the phenomena of singing-
flames, and a vibrating string responds to a particular
note in obedience to well-known laws. Iodide of
nitrogen may be caused to explode by the influence of
a particular note from a fiddle. In the phenomena of
light, with a spectroscope, a luminous gas is sympa-
thetic with, and emits and aborbs, only particular
kinds of luminous rays. In chemical action also,
combustion excites combustion, ferment excites
ferment, infection communicates infection, and the
similar chemical change is transmitted from molecule
to molecule. Mental excitement and disease in one
person, often excite similar phenomena in another, as
is seen in " religious revivals," and well-known epi-
demics, such as the "'dancing mania," " preaching
epidemics," the " leaping ague/' the " mewing con-
tagion," etc., etc., (See " Epidemics of the Middle
Ages," by Hecker ; Sydenham Society publications ;
also Carpenter's Mental Physiology, p. 312.) Like
excites like in the actions of each of the forces of
nature ; both in physical, chemical, and mental action,
the kind of impulse transmitted is similar, unless
conditions exist which transmute it. Dynamite,

Periodical phenomena. 1 1 7

started into combustion by a flame, burns slowly
away ; but when started by a detonating substance,
detonates violently. Guthrie has also discovered that
if a melted cryohydrate (e. g. a chilled saturated
aqueous solution of a solid salt) is cooled to a certain
greater extent, it will not solidify — nothing separates
out, although the solution is four or five degrees below
its proper solidifying point. If a little crystal of ice
be then thrown into it, nothing separates but ice,
which comes to the surface. If we throw in a little
anhydrous salt, nothing but the anhydrous salt se-
parates out, and that sinks to the bottom. But if
we throw into it a crystal of a previous crop of
cryohydrate, then nothing but the cryohydrate se-
parates. In this case also, like evidently excites like
only, in obedience to physical laws. (Addresses,
Science Conferences ; South Kensington Museum,
1876; Vol. 2, p. 108). Even two clocks, when hung
near each other, against a board or surface which
readily transmits vibrations, have been known to ex-
hibit, by synchronous action, an apparent sympathy,
which changed their rate of going.

Periodical phenomena, also, brought about by defi-
nite causes, occur in mental, as well as in physical
phenomena. In the former we have the phenomena
of sleep, and in the latter, definite causes produce
summer and winter, day and night, the tides, cycles of
solar spots, maxima and minima of magnetic inten-
sity, etc., etc.

Conversely to the manifestation of the principles of

f 1 8 Similarity of mental and physical phenomena.

inanimate matter by living bodies and in mental
action, so have modern inventions demonstrated the
possibility of the performance by inanimate sub-
stances and apparatuses, of the functions, not only of
our bodily organs, (as of locomotion by the steam
engine,) but also of our senses and intellect, and in
some cases, to a degree far surpassing unaided human
power. Apparatus, sensitive to sound, have been con-
structed, as in the microphone and singing-flames ;
others capable of reproducing articulate speech, as in
the phonograph, telephone, etc. ; others again sensitive
to light, as in the production of visible images by
photography, and reproducing them at a distance
through wires by means of the photophone ; the power
of indicating or foretelling future events has also been
embodied in instruments called " tide predictors," and
that of evolving inferences has been shewn in Jevon's
" Logical machine."

The various facts mentioned in this chapter prove
that mind agrees with the various forms of physical
energy in many essential points, and obeys many of
the same laws or principles. Examine whatever gen-
eral phenomena of the mind we may, we can always
detect some apparent or real connection of them with
the great principles of inorganic nature ; and in order
to prove the dependence of them upon the great
principles of science it is not necessary to show that
all such actions are subject to those principles. Until
the whole is explained however, there will always
remain mysterious phenomena to cavil about.

The Scientific Basis of Morality overlooked. 1 19^

MORAL PROGRESS.

At the present time few competent persons have
largely investigated the fundamental relations of
morality to Physical Science, consequently moral
actions are usually considered not to have a scientific
basis, and the doctrine is "still extensively taught that
some moral phenomena are essentially supernatural.

As new scientific knowledge has increased, belief in'
witchcraft, sorcery, demonology, exorcism, evil influ-
ences and omens, unseen spirits, a God of evil, super-
natural and occult powers, supernatural sources of
strange diseases, evil presages from comets and
eclipses, fetishism, worship of images and of the Sun,,
a belief that the Earth is the chief body in the
Universe, that man is the "Lord of Creation," &c., &c.,.
have largely passed away, and beliefs more consistent
with facts and with true inferences drawn from them,,
have taken their place. Belief in the supernatural
nature of the human will however is still largely
retained. A writer on morality, says — " In every
genuine volitition we have a phenomenon not law-
determined, law-regulated, and law-explained."* A
popular expositor of religion says — "The phenomena
of the human soul are essentially different from the
phenomena with which the student of science is most
familiar, and must be investigated on other principles'
and by other methods." "The voluntary activity of
man lies beyond the limits of science." " Every
language man has ever spoken — no matter how per-

t * "Wish and Will," by L. Turner, M.A.

1 20 Moral actions are mental ones.

feet or how rude — the literature of the ancient and
the modern world, the indestructible instincts of the
human soul, the testimony of consciousness, unite
to affirm that the human will is independent of
natural law." " The will is a supernatural power."
"I myself am not under the dominion of natural law;"
" my moral life is essentially a supernatural thing."
" As soon as you approach the intellectual and
moral life of man, you enter a region in which you
have to do with a new order of facts." &c.*

Morality, the subject of duty, or of right and wrong-
doing in conscious creatures, is usually considered to
relate only to those actions over which a man has or
might have had control, and which it was his duty
either to perform or avoid, and not to those which
are entirely beyond his influence, it is therefore
essentially dependent upon the power of selection or
choosing. As then all moral actions require voluntary

/? choice between right and wrong, and every act of
choice is a mental one of comparison of two or more

(^things, all moral actions are mental ones. We cannot
compare things which have not made .any mental
impression upon us. We know further, and the
evidence already given proves, that mental actions
are intimately dependent upon the principles of nature
operating within and around us. If then all acts of
morality (or immorality) are mental ones, and if all

1 mental actions are intimately dependent upon the
great principles of nature ; then all acts of morality

* "The Mutual Relations of Physical Science and Religious Faith."

General moral effects of Scientific research. 12 1

are dependent upon those principles. Morality also
cannot be properly understood without a knowledge
of various sciences, especially biology, because it
relates to human creatures, all of whom are morally
affected by the various forces and substances belong-
ing to the physical and chemical sciences.

Having shown that moral actions are mental ones,
and adduced evidence to prove that mental actions
are largely subject to scientific principles ; — it follows
as a necessary consequence, that moral actions also
largely obey those principles, and I need not repeat
that evidence.

/ The extension of scientific knowledge conduces in
a very general way to moral progress, by diffusing the
" scientific spirit," increasing our love of truth, facili-
tating the attainment of greater certainty and accuracy,
enabling us to more perfectly avoid error, reducing
our ignorance, dispelling superstition, inculcating
obedience to law, diminishing difference of opinion
and thereby lessening strife, conducing to humility, to
greater economy of means, to increased cleanliness,
&c, &c. Scientific research also, by disclosing to
man his true position in nature, enables him to act
in harmony therewith, and thus increase his morality
and general happiness.

Knowledge ris as free as the air, once diffused it
becomes impressed upon the brains of men and can-
not be easily destroyed or restrained; and the greatest
moral effects of science are cosmopolitan ones. In-
ventions based upon new scientific truths are gradually

1 22 Moral effects of Scientific inventions.

i breaking down the barriers between the various
nations of the Earth, and infusing- common interests
amongst all mankind. Nothing is uniting the sym-
pathies of different nations, increasing the friendly
feelings between them, and diminishing the probability
of war, more than the increasing facilities of com-
munication brought about in a great measure by the
developments of science and art ; more particularly by
ocean steam navigation, rapid postal communicationf
and the telegraph, (see p. 51). At the present time
there are about six Atlantic telegraph cables in use,
and an almost daily service of passenger steam ships
across that ocean. The use of inventions based upon
scientific discovery has aided moral progress in various
ways. AH inventions are made with the object of
supplying some real or supposed want, and nearly
everything which supplies a common want, conduces
to contentment and happiness and the general pro-
gress of mankind. No one can possibly measure or
estimate the advantage of the inventions of writing
and printing, in helping men to avoid quarrels, to
settle differences of opinion, to sympathise with
suffering, to give advice: &c. Similar moral functions
are also performed by the electric telegraph, and a
few specimens of some of the messages sent through
the wire would clearly illustrate this fact. Great
moral progress has also resulted from cheap daily
intelligence, collected largely with the aid of the
telegraph ; and of cheap books produced by means of
the steam engine. It is estimated that 250 millions

Moral effects of modern science. 123

of copies of newspapers are yearly published in Great
Britain. The Bible and Religious Tract Societies
could hardly have existed had not the properties of
the ingredients of ink been discovered. The present
multiplicity of testaments, prayer-books, hymn-books,
&c., has also been rendered possible by the invention
of printing, As darkness is favourable to crime, so
the invention of gaslight has conduced to morality.
The numerous sources of intellectual and moral enjoy-
ment, developed by inventions based upon scientific
discovery, have attracted mankind from more sensual
and less moral amusements, and the invention of the
piano-forte has operated largely in a similar manner.

In many respects, the poor man of to-day can
command social comforts, conveniences, and pleasures,
which an emperor could not in former times. Who
can estimate the amount of beneficial moral influences
of an indirect kind obtained by means of modern
science ? The relief from pain by chloroform and
other new medicines, the diminution of domestic toil
by the sewing machine ; the increased health and
pleasure obtained by access to the country and sea-"
side by means of railways ; the diminution of anxiety
resulting from more speedy conveyance of letters, and
especially of messages by telegraphs, the increased
pleasure of life resulting from being surrounded by
objects of beauty multiplied cheaply by means of
scientific processes, such as photography ?

The human mind cannot greatly resist impression,
the various effects of scientific research necessarily

1 24 General influence of Science upon the public.

produce an influence upon it. Whilst great deep-
seated truths make a powerful impression on the
minds of philosophers, the great practical effects of
science in inventions, &c., profoundly impress the
mass of mankind. One of the chief influences of the
discovery of important scientific truths and of their
practical application in some wonderful way, such as
in the telescope and microscope, phosphorus matches,
photography, electro-plating, the electric light, the
spectroscope, microphone, telephone, &c , is to produce
a profound and wide-spread impression of the ex-
istence of a great and mysterious influence, which
produces (or enables us to produce) such striking
effects.

Whilst also the novelty of the practical effects of
new scientific truths in inventions, astonish persons
in general ; the definiteness of scientific phenomena,
and the certainty with which they may be reproduced
convince all competent persons who examine them,
that they are rigidly subject to definite laws. In this
way the antique belief that natural phenomena are
'produced by supernatural agencies, is gradually
being abandoned, and" the more moral conviction of
the omnipresence and universality of law has been
largely established in its stead. Every new scientific
fact and invention thus becomes a new proof of the
universality of law. Belief in the supernatural has
diminished in proportion as scientific knowledge has
advanced ; instead of natural phenomena being
•erroneously ascribed to demons, spirits, supernatural

Moral phenomena are subjects of experiment. 125

powers, and occult causes, they have been proved to
be results of natural powers, acting in accordance
with known principles. Assertions which have been
made, that " the will is a supernatural power, inde-
pendent of natural law " &c., are not supported by
evidence at all equal in cogency to that in proof of
the statement, that our mental and moral powers as a
whole act in accordance with the great principles of
science.

That moral phenomena, like those of the physical
sciences, are capable of being made the subject
of experiment, observation, comparison, analysis,
and inference, is very manifest. Every case of
bribery may be viewed as an experiment in mo-
rality. The very common case where an employer
tests the honesty of a servant by some contrivance, is
also a trial of a similar kind. The dependence of the
moral powers upon scientific conditions, is clearly
seen in the influences of intoxicating drinks. A mere
natural substance could not possibly overcome the
influence of a power which exists entirely independent
of it ; i.e., a " supernatural " one. Even the greatest
believer in the " supernatural " power of the human
wrill, deplores the serious injury which the abuse of
alcoholic liquors produces upon mankind, rendering
the will powerless, and debasing the moral sentiments.
The effects of opium, haschisch, &c., are other ex-
amples. A vast number of experiments remain to be
made of the effects of drugs and organic compounds,
both solid, liquid and gaseous, upon moral actions ;.

1 26 Methods of Science are applicable to Morality.

which will probably prove a still greater degree of
dependence of those actions upon purely physicial
/ and chemical conditions.

The " order of facts" in the subject of morality
requires precisely similar mental treatment to those
to which scientific investigation has been already
applied with such great success, and which include all
phenomena admitting of observation, comparison,
analysis and inference ; and not only those in which
we are able, but also those in which we are not able
to produce by means of experiment, the phenomena
to be observed, such as those of astronomy and geol-
ogy. Different subjects also are experimental in dif-
ferent degrees, physical science is more experimental,
physiology is more observational ; morality is partly
experimental, and therefore capable of reduction to
scientific system by means of our intellectual powers.
In consequence of the essential nature of truth
being the same in all subjects, and of the fundamental
processes of mental action in the determination of
truth being also alike in all, the essential modes of
arriving at and detecting moral truth are the same as
those employed in research in the physical sciences.
We possess therefore no special faculty, call it
44 conscience," or what we may, by which we are
enabled to infallibly arrive at truth in moral ques-
tions. What is right and good, and what is wrong
and evil, are determined by precisely the same general
means as what is true ; our much vaunted conscious-
ness alone does not infallibly tell us ; reason alone,

Empirical method of Morality.

acting upon the evidence, is the final arbiter in any
doubtful or disputed case. The truth of moral ques-
tions must be examined and tested by precisely the
same mental faculties and processes as those em-
ployed in physical science, viz : — by the faculties of
perception, observation, comparison, and inference,
acting upon the whole of the evidence ; and by the
processes of observing facts, comparing them, inferring
conclusions ; by analysing and cross-examining the
evidence in every possible way, and extracting from
it the largest amount of consistent knowledge.

Although we cannot detect moral truth by any
other than intellectual processes, we may however
arrive at correct moral conduct in two ways, viz : —
either blindly or intelligently. We arrive at it blindly
or automatically by the process of trusting to our
inherited and acquire tendencies and dogmatic
beliefs ; and intelligently by the conscious use of our
knowledge and intellectual powers ; and each of these
methods has its advantages. The former process*
being an empirical one, is very uncertain and cannot
be employed for the judical detection of truth, or the
certain discrimination of it from error, it has however
to be trusted to in all cases where we are deficient in
knowledge, or have not time for investigation.
Truthful ideas and correct conduct also, which at first
require the exercise of considerable intellect and
much self-discipline, in order to arrive at them, be-
come by habit so completly converted into acquired
tendences as to be automatic. It is not improbable

128 Proof of the Scientific basis of Morality,

that many of our truthful ideas and correct tendencies
were originally arrived at by intellectual processes ; and
have become incorporated into our mental and
physical structure by habit, education, and inheritance.
The scientific basis of morality is further shewn and
essentially proved by the fact that the fundamental
rules of morality are dependent upon scientific
principles. According to Dr. Clarke, the two funda-
mental " rules of righteousness" which regulate our
moral conduct are, first, that we should do unto
another what we would, under like circumstances,
have him do unto us ; and second, that we should
constantly endeavour to promote to the utmost of our
power, the welfare and happiness of all men (to the
latter might well be added, the welfare of all sentient
creatures). The first of these rules is essentially
dependent upon the scientific principle of causation,
viz :--that the same cause, acting under the same
circumstances, always produces the same effect, if
what we did for another person under like circum-
stances might produce a different effect to what it
would when done for ourself, the rule could not be
depended upon and would be of no use. The second
also agrees with the great principles of science, for
the more we obey those principles, the more do we
really " promote the happiness and welfare of all
men." The first of these rules however in the form
usually stated, is incomplete, because it does not
provide for the circumstance, that many persons
desire to have done unto themselves, not that which

Morality depends upon Causation. 129*

is most right, and really most for their welfare and
that of mankind in general, but that which would1
most please them. The desire of immediate pleasure-
or consolation is greater than the love of truth in
nearly all men, and this is connected with another
fact, viz : — that persons unacquainted with the great'
principles of science, have not the advantage of the
moral sustaining power of those principles, and are
compelled in circumstances of trial to seek extraneous-
mental relief.

The desire to do right is not the primary source
of morality ; there must be a cause for that desire,
and this fact also shews that moral phenomena are
dependent upon the scientific principle of causation.
We can also mueh better understand a subject,
especially a complex one like that of morals, when1
we can co ordinate its facts in a scientific manner, by
referring them to some general principle which1
governs or includes them. Referring moral actions
to a verified scientific principle, is more satisfactory
than referring them to a less definite source such as-
" conscience " ; the " testimony of consciousness " ; or
" the indestructible instincts of the human soul,"
because a principle affords a more consistent explana-
tion than a dogmatic idea. The fact also that the
discoveries of science usually precede the develop-*
ments of the moral advantages of science to mankind,
is in harmony with the general truth that effects
follow their causes, and with the conclusion that moral
rules and moral progress have a scientific basis.

130 " The Scientific Spirit?

In a general way, the influence of science upon
moral progress is connected with what has been
termed, "the scientific spirit." This characteristic
consists mainly of an intense love of truth, a desire to
acquire new knowledge, to arrive at certainty and
accuracy ; also an obedience to law in general, and a
consequent philosophic resignation to inevitable ills.
Science inculcates these qualities, and it is well
known that scientific discoverers have usually been
highly moral persons, truthful, accurate, law abiding,
patient, persevering, temperate, &c. On the other
hand, the most lawless persons are usually those who
are most ignorant of the great laws which govern
their actions, who over-estimate human power and
ability, and are impelled by ill-regulated enthusiasm
or feeling.

Belief in and obedience to law, being a fundamental
moral quality, is in its turn the source of other moral
qualities of less importance ; for instance, it tends to
produce calmness, resignation, contentment, patience,
submission to the inevitable, &c. No man can be
highly moral who disobeys the great principles of
nature. We may however obey those laws either
intelligently, by acquiring a scientific knowledge of
them ; .empirically, by obeying rules framed in accord-
ance with them ; or blindly, by obeying dogmas which V
happen to agree with them. Those who do not un-
derstand laws cannot of course intelligently obey
them, and those who most disobey them, consist
nearly wholly of those who do not understand them.

Science inculcates a love of truth. 131

Superstition, ignorance of natural law, and a belief in
occult powers, encourages lawlessness, injures the
moral sentiments, and is often attended by bigotry,
associated with strife, schism, and sectarian dispute.

Probably the greatest influence which scientific
discovery has had upon the moral progress of man-
kind, has been by inculcating an intelligent love of
truth on account of its own intrinsic goodness ; in this
respect it stands pre-eminent. Love of truth is a
fundamental virtue because it is the basis of many
smaller ones. It is more virtuous, also, to pursue ,
truth on account of its own intrinsic and unqualified
goodness in all respects, than for any narrow extrinsic
quality, such as the personal pleasure or utility it may
afford, or on account of any personal gain or loss,
reward or punishment, which may result from pur-
suing or neglecting it. In the present imperfect state
of civilization however, the great bulk of mankind
unavoidably employ less noble, as well as the noblest
motives, as a means of improvement. Most men can
only be moved to do right by means of inferior
motives, one of the most effectual of which in a com-
mercial nation is " small investments, large profits,
and quick returns ;" an expectation of great reward in
return for small self-sacrifice.

The discovery and dissemination of verified scienti-
fic knowledge is a purer kind of occupation than the
promulgation of any kind of dogma, because the
statements of verified science are usually capable of
demonstration, whilst those of doctrine, being often

o o

132 Verified Science is independent of faith.

contradictory, may, or may not be true ; mere
affirmation also, when not based upon proof, is often
dangerous to morality. In dogmatic subjects a man
may tell untruths with impunity, because no one can
disprove or convict him ; but in demonstrable ones, a
man dare not utter falsehoods, because others will
prove his statements to be erroneous. It is demon-
stration rather than doctrine that is of divine origin.
A man also who practises scientific research is largely
compelled to adopt the most truthful views of nature,
in order to enable him to make discoveries,

Real science is largely independent of opinion or
faith. Whether we believe or not that a piece of
clean iron immersed in a mixture of oil of vitriol and
water, evolves hydrogen gas, the fact itself remains
unaltered. It is a great and glorious circumstance
for mankind, that human progress depends essentially
upon a knowledge of new verified truth. As verified
experimental knowledge can only come from the
great source of all that is good, to doubt the value of
new demonstrable truth, is practical atheism. Those
also who systematically investigate sources of verifia-
ble truth, are much more likely to ultimately arrive
at the fountain of all truth, than those who employ
unsystematic methods, or prefer unproved beliefs to
verified knowledge.

Another of the most powerful ways in which
scientific discovery has promoted moral progress has
been an indirect one, viz., by diminishing ignorance.
Deficiency of knowledge is the parent of a vast

Knowledge, a condition of morality. 133

amount of evil and failure. " There is no instance on
record of an active ignorant man, who, having good
intentions, and supreme power to enforce them, has
not done far more evil than good." (Buckle, "History
of Civilization," vol. I, p. 167). Ignorance largely
precludes happiness, and intelligence is an indispen-
sable condition of the highest morality. There are
plenty of difficult positions in life in which the desire
to do right is not alone sufficient, we must intelligently
know what is the right course to pursue. We are all
of us ignorant in different degrees, and must be con-
tent in many matters to walk by faith until we can
walk by sight, and to act according to rule and
precept until we have discovered general principles to
guide us : — blind dogmatic morality and " rule of
thumb " method is vastly better than none, and has
rendered great services to mankind. Whether com-
forting doctrines are true or not, the great bulk of
mankind prefer them because they afford immediate
relief ; and whether they be erroneous or truthful,
men will be benefited by them and continue to believe
in them, until their minds are sufficiently advanced to
receive a knowledge of verified principles. Rules of
morality however, when presented to us with a basis of
demonstrable truth, come with a degree of divine
authority, and possess greater claim to our observance,
than the same rules presented to us as empirical or
dogmatic statements only.

In proportion to our ignorance the more we dislike
to be apprised of our defects and the more inclined are

1 34 Ignorance, a chief cause of evil.

we to continue uninformed ; because the less intelli-
gent we are the less are we able to perceive the evil
effects of our blindness or the advantages of know-
ledge. As also the present state of civilzation is very
imperfect, and unsolved problems exist in all direc-
tions, ignorance and all its evil consequences are
extremely prevalent. It causes the great mass of
mankind to neglect better objects for the sake of
money. It indirectly constrains lawyers to neglect
moral evidence. It induces medical men to withold
truth from ignorant patients. It causes ministers of
religion to prefer doctrine to demonstration. It
would therefore be comparatively easy to compose
lists of our moral deficiences, and of improvements
urgently needed in morality, far more extensive than
the very incomplete ones of our material short-
comings already given (see pp. 68 to 78). To
enumerate however the imperfections in the moral
conduct of mankind, the frauds in trades, the undue
advantage taken of the defenceless, the deceit and
empiricism in professions, the professional trading on
human weakness, the cruelty of field sports, the
hollow motives of social, political, and religious life,
the propagating as infallible truth, doctrines which
may be fallacious, is not the object of this Chapter ;
but rather to make clear the fact, that the extension
of the domain of verified truth by means of scientific
research is highly conducive to moral progress.

The extension of new scientific knowledge is influ-
encing morality and gradually reducing the selfishness

Moral progress depends upon diffusion of Science. 135

of mankind, by proving that their exist no royal
roads to happiness, and that the greatest amount of
individual and national success can only be secured
by a genuine pursuit of truth, as an individual and
cosmopolitan duty. Increased knowledge is gradually
proving to mankind that the purest happiness is to be
obtained by intelligent and virtuous conduct. By
shewing Man the unreasonable character of some of
his fears and hopes, and substituting for them a
greater variety and extent of intellectual pleasures,
science is slowly making him more satisfied with his
lot on this Earth. Meanwhile the great mass of
mankind are still pursuing the ever retreating phan-
tom of an easy way to happiness ; the great laws of
nature however cannot be evaded, the avoidance of
evil and the attainment of good can only be secured
by obeying all the great laws which govern our
nature.

Progress in morality is largely dependent upon the
diffusion of belief in the universality of scientific laws.
When men understand those laws, know that their
action is irresistible, and that they have no alternative
but to obey them or suffer, they acquire a habit of
obeying them. Universality of law in moral actions is
often considered to be incompatible with the existence
of freedom of the will in selecting ideas, and choosing
courses of conduct ; but we are free or not, according to
circumstances, both to think and to act. All things are
free to be active or not, in accordance with their
properties and surrounding conditions, but not in

1 36 KAowltdgt increases freedom of will.

.contradiction to them ; and the human will is no
.exception to this statement. The " will " is only free
within certain limits ; it cannot act in opposition
to its strongest motives or causes of action. We
.believe ourselves to be much more free than we are,
.because we often do not know the causes which de-
termine us, and we frequently fail to detect those
; influences, because we cannot think, and at the same
time clearly observe our act of thought and its
.motives. Freedom of the will does not enable us to
set aside laws : entire freedom from law in any
instance is probably only apparent, This limited
degree of freedom of the will indicates the dependence
•of volition upon scientific laws, because a supernatural
power, being entirely independent of natural law,
, could not be limited by it. To affirm without proof
.that the human will is a "supernatural power" is to
.implicitly deny the universality and constancy of
..natural laws. New knowledge developed by Science,
.imparts to us liberty, but not license ; and, so far from
diminishing the freedom of the will, increases it by
.showing us what conditions we must fulfil and obey in
order to effect our objects. We acquire power by
.being first obedient ; and this is in accordance with
the principles and facts of science ; we must obey
nature before we can make nature obey us ; the
• elementary bodies, also, usually acquire the free state,
latent power, and the ability to evolve heat and elec-
tric energy, only by being first subjected in their
.crude state to a process of reduction and purification.

Science inculcates accuracy of conduct. 137

Few circumstances connected with the discovery of
new truths of science, have had a greater moral effect, /
than the very high degree of certainty of such truths.
The moral result of this is a corresponding degree of
confidence in the statements of science. Trustworthi- ,
ness is a great moral quality. Uncertainty is a continual
hindrance to action and enjoyment ; and many per-
sons are driven to believe in error, and hence to com-
mit sin, rather than remain in suspense. Contra-
dictions of doctrine, and the consequent uncertainty of
belief, in any subject, are fertile sources of strife.
Science consists, not merely of opinions and words,
but also of the tangible realities which those opinions
and words represent, the forces, substances and
phenomena of the material Universe. Some persons
however fancy that the results of science are as
uncertain as those of the undemonstrable subjects
with which they are familiar.

Another way in which science has contributed to
moral progress, has been by requiring greater accuracy
in nearly all human actions, and thereby diffusing
greater exactitude of language and of conduct, which
has spread itself throughout all civilised society.
Previous to the use of watches and clocks, persons
were no doubt much less exact in fulfilling their
appointments; the establishment also in our chief towns,
of electric time-keepers regulated from Greenwich
Observatory, is increasing exactitude in our large
communities. Since the introduction of railways,
millions of persons have been compelled to be more

138 Science diminishes error.

exact in their movements, by the risk they incur of
missing their train. Numerous inventions and pro-
cesses based upon scientific discoveries could not be
worked at all unless men possessed habits of greater
accuracy than formerly. Workmen now require
higher moral and intellectual education, and their
duties require more intelligence and involve greater
responsibility.

Science diminishes error, and the avoidance of
error is a large step towards the attainment of truth.
There is no tyranny equal to that of false ideas.
Error often produces immoral acts, and every act of
immorality is a mental error. " The ignorant justice-
loving man, enamoured of the right, is blinded by the
speciousness of wrong." " Inaccuracy of thought is
the cause not only of the errors we meet with in
the sciences, but also of the majority of the offences
which are committed in civil life, — of unjust quarrels,
unfounded law suits, rash counsel, and ill-arranged
undertakings. There are few of those which have
not their origin in some error, and in some fault of
judgment, so that there is no defect which it more
concerns us to correct."*

Our senses and consciousness are often great de-
ceivers, and unless corrected by sufficient knowledge,
are frequently as great a source of error in moral ques-
tions as in mental ones.-(- Their incessant influence
is a cause of selfishness, and of the fallacious tendency
existing in nearly every man, to exaggerate the im-
portance of himself and of everything relating to him.

* Port Royal Logic, Discourse i. t See p. 91—92.

Scientific basis of Evil. 1 39

It has led man to consider himself " the Lord of
Creation " ; — to believe that his volitions are not
subject to natural laws &c. : — and has given rise to
the comparatively narrow-minded idea " the study of
mankind is man." The fact that consciousness-
frequently misleads men of energetic temperament
who feel their energy, indicates its connection with a
physical basis.

Consciousness is also an essential condition of what
we term evil. If we define evil as that which produces
pain or discomfort in sentient creatures, then evil is
that influence only which unpleasantly affects con-
sciousness. And if we admit this, then all evil is
relative, and there is no absolute evil ; because, if
there were no sentient creatures, there would be no
evil. It is manifest also, that if the existence of evil
is dependent upon that of sentient creatures, and if
the existence of such creatures depends upon physical
conditions, and upon the operations of the great
principles of science, then the existence of evil must
itself depend to that extent upon those conditions and
principles. What we term Evil, is caused, not only
by the actions of man, but also on a large scale by
the operation of the simplest forces of matter, in
earth-quakes, storms, volcanic outbursts, droughts and
famines, pestilences, etc. Evil (as well as good) may
therefore be viewed as a result, to some extent, of the
operation of the laws of the Universe ; and here again
we are compelled to recognise a scientific basis of
morality.

140 Scientific basis of Good.

That the same causes, acting under different con-
ditions, produce different and even opposite effects, is
a well-known scientific truth. The same heat of
summer which causes our foods to decay, promotes
the growth of plants in the soil! the same cold of
winter which increases the pain of bronchial affections,
and cuts short the lives of aged and infirm persons,
acts as a stimulant and a source of pleasure to the
young and healthy. We need not therefore be sur-
prised, that the same physical conditions and princi-
ples of nature, act as causes or conditions both of
what we term evil and what we term good. If, also
the theory of relativity in physical and mental action
is true, that change of impression is a necessary cause
or condition of consciousness, and that previous ex-
perience of pain increases the perception of pleasure,
we possess in that theory, as one of the general ideas
of science, a partial basis of morality. All these
-remarks tend to shew, that in order to obtain a truly
scientific view of the nature of man, and of man's
position and duties in the Universe, we must avoid
the errors caused by unconnected consciousness.

Another great moral effect of the continual dis-
covery of new truth in science, is the gradual produc-
tion and diffusion of uniformity of belief, first amongst
scientific men, and then amongst the mass of man-
kind. This uniformity of belief is a necessary result
of the invariability of fact and law ; it does not
extend to scientific opinions, hypotheses or theories,
because they are not necessarily facts, and may be

Science produces uniformity of belief . 141

erroneous. A knowledge of science tends to remove
differences of opinion between man and man, because
it enables every honest examiner to obtain essentially
similar results. Scientific research will gradually dis-
close what is true and what is untrue in doctrine and
empirical rules ; and what is true will be retained^
A universal religion or a scientific philosophy which
is composed of contradictory creeds cannot be wholly
true. Science is gradually superseding unreasonable
beliefs, and inaugurating a true universal gospel in
which all men will eventually think alike in funda-
mental matters. The continued discovery of new
truth must of necessity sooner or later lead mankind
to the source of all truth and to universal satisfaction
and happiness. It has been frequently stated that
science is antagonistic to religion ; it is evident
however that as science is so conducive to morality, it
cannot be opposed to true religion, but only to false
or unfounded beliefs. Nothing shews more plainly a
weakness of moral confidence and a deficiency of
faith in an over-ruling power, than a fear that the
pursuit of scientific truth will lead to results injurious
to mankind. What we most need to fear is, not that
our most cherished doctrinal beliefs may be proved to
be mistakes, but that we through deficiency of know-
ledge may be led to do wrong.

There are plenty of questions, especially in matters
of theory and doctrine in concrete subjects, which
science cannot directly and absolutely decide either
one way or the other, but respecting which, by the

142 Science corrects uneducated Consciousness.

aid of new knowledge and of inference based upon
it, science gradually accumulates so large a prepon-
derence of evidence as conclusively settles them to
the conviction of every unprejudiced and reasonable
person. Many of the most deeply interesting ques-
tions in mental science and morality are of this kind ;
.and will probably be settled in this manner. It is
well-known also to scientific men that the indirect
conclusions of the intellect and reasoning power are
often more certain than the direct evidence of the
senses and consciousness ; we are more certain for
instance that the Earth is a sphere than that it is a
plane, although the former conclusion is arrived at
largely by inference, whilst the latter is the direct
testimony of uneducated consciousness. Whilst our
senses and consciousness inform us that the Earth is
a fixed body, inference proves to us that it is rushing
through space at an immense velocity. Sense and
consciousness are not intellect, although they are
often treated as such. Their functions are to perceive
and observe, to act as witnesses, to supply evidence to
the judgment, and not to usurp the reasoning power
Even the universal consciousness of all mankind is
insufficient to overthrow the final decisions of the
intellect, or to decide what is true or false, because
the senses and consciousness cannot compare or infer.
As it is the force and repitition, and not the truthful-
ness of mental impressions, which largely determines
belief, we are capable of believing error as well as
truth, and we believe much that is erroneous until the

Science affects our most cherished beliefs. 143

corrections of the intellect are applied to the evidence
of the senses and feelings. The correctness or other-
wise of our present beliefs will be tested in the future
as others have been in the past, and the new experi-
ences requisite for the purpose will probably be
obtained by means of original research. It is a great
mistake to suppose that the warrantable inferences
deduced from scientific knowledge will not sooner or
later profoundly influence questions relating to the
highest hopes and aspirations of the human race, such
as the independent existence and immortality of the
human soul; that of a personal Ruler of the Universe;
freedom of the will ; the origin of evil ; future
reward and punishment ; &c. By extension of know-
ledge a scientific system of morality will be formed.
The great principles which govern the phenomena of
all bodies are gradually being discovered, and when
found we deductively apply them to ourselves, and
thus arrive at a knowledge of our true position in
nature, our duties, our proper course of conduct, &c.
Science also by disclosing to us the true relations of
matter to mind in the human brain, will probably not
only make known to us the true limits of our mental
powers and of the knowable, but also help to solve
the problems of the relations of the Universe and of
Man to an intelligent Creator. It will decide such
questions, largely by shewing us whether or not the
ideas we entertain respecting them are consistent
with the more extensive knowledge evolved by
research. A part of the data from which we may

144 Scientific knowledge makes us Jmmblc.

safely predict that science will in the future exercise
so great a moral influence over mankind, is the fact
that its chief principles are fundamental guides and
regulators of human action.

Probably nothing has a greater effect in making a
man humble and reverent than a thorough knowledge
of science. By the inventions of the telescope, micro-
scope, spectroscope, telegraph, microphone, telephone,
&c., the extremely finite extent of all our faculties has
been abundantly demonstrated. Whilst the wonders
of the telescope have developed an intelligent sentiment
of reverence, by revealing to us a portion of the vast
amount of the Universe of matter and energy, those
of the microscope have strengthened that sentiment by
affording us an insight into the almost endless com-
plexity of minute creatures, substances and actions.
Whilst also these and other scientific instruments and
appliances have proved the excessively limited ex-
tent of our senses ; the inscrutable character and
immense number and variety of problems of nature
yet unsolved, equally demonstrate the extreme
feebleness of our mental powers. To obtain an ac-
curate acquaintance with science also, and especially
to discover new scientific truths, it is absolutely
necessary to set aside human pride, and approach the
subject like a little child ; no other course is possible.

A knowledge of geology and astronomy also makes
a man humble and reverent. The fact that this globe
must have existed myriads of years ; and is always
moving at the immense velocity of more than 62,000

Relative insignificance of Man to the Universe.

miles an hour in its orbit, is sufficient to convince any
unprejudiced person of his own transient physical
existence and his comparative physical feebleness and
insignificance. Hitherto, man has largely been accus-
tomed, through the influence of uncorrected impressions-
and other causes, to view all nature as having been,
expressly provided for him, but science informs us that
whilst this Earth is suitable for his abode, and Nature
ministers to his necessities and pleasures, it is only on
condition that he first obeys the great laws of matter
and energy, and adapts himself to their requirements.
The operation of those laws often ruthlessly destroys
thousands of men by pestilence, famine, drought, and
other great calamities, and man can do nothing which
is incompatible with them without suffering a penalty..
Science shews that man is but one out of at least
320,000 different species of animals; it also discloses
the fact that the entire human population of this
globe constitute only about one 50,575,785 millionth
part of the Earth, and proves to us that the Earth
itself is but a speck in the Universe, one out of at
least 75 millions of worlds ; and that not only is it
merely a planet revolving round the Sun, but that
the Sun is only one of a multitude of Suns, and is
itself, with all its planets, revolving round a still more
distant centre in space.

There is scarcely a faculty man possesses, which is
not immeasurably limited in comparison with the
powers and capabilities of inanimate nature. His
physical energy, when compared with that of the

146 Limited extent of man's senses.

momentum of this Earth, is so exceedingly small that
it can hardly be conveyed to our minds by means of
figures ; even the steam engine, excessively wasteful
as it is of power, far surpasses him in strength. The
duration of his existence is to that of the world he in-
habits, as nothing to infinity. His power and speed
of locomotion are also very limited ; the globe to
which he is fixed by gravity, moves in one hour
through a distance greater than he could walk in
twenty years. Practically, by circumstances, he is al-
most rooted like a vegetable to the locality where he
exists ; comparatively few men have walked even a
hundred miles from their homes, or have been con-
veyed round this little globe by the aid of all our im-
proved means of transport. A balloon can ascend in
the air, but a man cannot ; without the aid of that
apparatus he is absolutely fixed to the surface of the
Earth, and with the assistance of all the appliances of
science, he cannot yet ascend even ten miles into the
atmosphere, nor dive more than a few fathoms into
the sea. His senses are equally contracted ; his per-
ceptions of touch and sound are far less delicate than
that of the microphone ; a photographic surface will
detect vibrations of light which he cannot at all per-
ceive, and record images more quickly than his brain ;
and for the detection of magnetism and the chemical
rays of light he possesses no sense whatever : — electro-
meters and galvanometers can detect thousands of
times smaller quantities of electricity than he can per-
ceive : — whilst a bolometer renders manifest a one

Feebleness of mans intellect. 147

hundred-thousandth of a Centigrade degree change of
temperature, he can hardly detect a difference of an
entire degree; and whilst carbon and platinum maybe
heated to whiteness without material change, a rise
or fall of about five Fahrenheit degrees in his tem-
perature endangers his life. His mental and intel-
lectual powers are as limited as his senses ; he can
hardly reckon without making an error even a single
million, nor can he conceive an adequate idea of a
billion ; a million miles or a millionth of an inch are
each quite beyond his immediate perception ; an ex-
tremely minute circumstance also is capable of disturb-
ing and entirely diverting his train of thought. He
cannot create or destroy even a particle of dust, nor
form out of nothing a single idea. The velocity of
transmission of his nervous power, and the speed of
his execution of will, are also extremely slow in com-
parison with that of an electric current in a copper wire.
Every person is aware that he can only very slowly
receive and understand a new idea. His mental
advance is as tardy as his locomotion, a sixth part of
his life is spent in acquiring the merest rudiments of
universal knowledge. Whilst his reasoning power,
when applied to actual and truthfully stated experi-
ence, is truly " the great guide " of his life, it only
renders explicit what was already contained in that
experience ; for when he draws an inference, he
usually only states in one form of words, what he has
already implicitly included in the propositions ; and
if the inference contains more than this it is unwar-

p P

148 Man, the creature of circumstances.

ranted. His mental helplessness in the absence of
knowledge, is equal to his physical incapacity in the
absence of light. Nearly every problem of nature
also is so complex, and affected by so many condi-
tions, that his reasoning power only enables him to
advance a very minute step at a time in the discovery
of new knowledge ; he is then obliged to halt, and
have recourse to new experiences obtained either by
means of experiment and observation, or by the latter
alone.

Man's moral actions are largely the effect of
circumstances ; his thoughts and actions are probably
the whole of them limited by law. He is never free
from the influence of causation. His mental and
moral freedom are limited by the epoch in which he
lives, by the customs of his nation, by the individuals
by whom he is immediately surrounded, by the
alcoholic stimulants of which he partakes, and by his
own physical and mental constitution, his degree of
intelligence, &c., &c. Whether he is willing or not,
he is incessantly compelled to receive sensuous and
mental impressions, and be influenced by an almost in-
finite number and variety of agencies acting upon him
both from within and without: — To be mentally and
physically active, and perform all the bodily functions
and acts necessary to his existence : — To live on this
globe in presence of all its phenomena, and be carried
through space at an immense velocity : — To undergo
through a long series of generations a progressive ex-
istence and development of civilization, &c., &c.

Physical basis of man's moral actions. 149

He is more subject to the laws of the Universe than
those laws are subject to him ; and he can only exer-
cise his will successfully and become their master by
first obeying them.

Under the influence of the light and heat of the
Sun, the entire population of this planet (about fifteen
hundred millions) are renewed out of the crust of the
Earth every few years, by breathing the air, drinking
the water, feeding upon plants which take their con-
stituents from the Earth, water and air ; or by eating
animals which have lived upon plants ; and if that
heat and light, or that supply of food and air, were to
cease, all those human beings would die, and all the
moral phenomena of man on this globe would termi-
nate. Whilst man cannot exist without the support of
inanimate nature and the operation of its laws, inani-
mate nature and its laws can exist without him
That also which is naturally ordained by Creative
power to be dependent, cannot be essentially more
important than that upon which it depends for its
existence. The essential importance of man in
relation to the Universe, exists only in his own
imagination.

These facts shew that the principles of science, and
the physical and chemical properties of substances,
lie at the very basis of man's existence and activity
and it would therefore be incorrect to say that the
physical system of the Universe is unimportant in
comparison with the moral phenomena of mankind.

That science conduces to humanity by preventing

150 Cleanliness promoted by Scientific Discovery.

and alleviating animal suffering has been already
alluded to (p. 80 — 81). True humanity consists not in
the abolition of experiments upon living creatures,
but in the judicious employment of them. Instead of
barbarously treating our suffering fellow creatures by
indolently and ignorantly allowing causes of disease
and pain to continually occur and take their course, it
urgently enforces upon us the duty of extending our
knowledge of physiology by means of new experi-
ments, observations and study. It would be un-
truthful to say that experiments purposely made
upon men and other animals do not yield new and
valuable information; — Pharmacopoeias and Materia-
Medicaes are full of descriptions of the properties of
curative agents discovered by these and other
scientific methods.

Amongst the lesser virtues which have been greatly
promoted by means of scientific research is that of
cleanliness. The origin of soap was the discovery of
the detergent properties of a boiled mixture of fat
and alkali. The numerous inventions which have
cheapened the most important soap-producing ma-
terial, viz., washing soda, and those which have
cheapened oil of vitriol, the chief substance consumed
in making washing-soda, have all contributed to the
cleanliness of mankind ; and it has been stated that
the degree of civilization of a nation might be ascer-
tained by the amounts consumed of those substances.

Even the minor virtue of economy has been greatly
promoted by the results of scientific research. New

Scientific research promotes Economy. 1 5 1

scientific truth has through inventions taught us how
to obtain greater effects with less expenditure of
space, of time, of materials, and forces. It has
enabled us to effect our objects quicker and with a
dimunition of waste. In the sugar manufacture for
example, by means of the centrifugal machine, the
sugar is deprived as perfectly of molasses in three
minutes, as it was previously in three days, and the
necessary manufacturing apparatus has been so much
reduced in magnitude as not to require more than
one half the space. The process of bleaching linen,
which formerly required weeks, has by the discovery
of chlorine been reduced to hours. Journeys which
at one time occupied weeks now only require days.
Messages are now transmitted in hours which formerly
required months. Multitudes of instances might be
adduced of the diminished cost of the comforts and
conveniences of life, resulting in consequence of dis-
covery of new scientific knowledge. Ultramarine for
example, which at one time cost from ten to twenty
pounds an ounce, has by means of chemical research
been reduced in price to a few pence per pound ;
phosphorus, which formerly cost several guineas an
ounce, now costs only as many pence.

Numerous substances which were formerly thrown
away, destroyed, or neglected, are now utilized.
Coal tar and gas-water, which were at cne time waste
products in the making of gas, and which when
thrown away were the causes of costly litigation to
gas-companies, by polluting streams and wells, &c.r

152 Science applied to the detection of crime.

are now sources of very large income to those com-
panies. Those substances yield great quantities of
•salts of ammonia, the beautiful aniline dyes, paraffin,
benzene, napthaline, alizarine, and other valuable
products, Glycerine also, which formerly was a most
offensive waste product in soap-making, is now puri-
fied and used, to an extent of twenty millions of
pounds anually, for a great number of purposes; as an
•emollient for the skin ; as a source of nitro-glycerine
and dynamite, used in blasting rocks, in warfare, &c.
The immense beds of native sulphide of iron also,
notably those of Tharsis and Rio Tinto in Spain,
and of many other places, are now utilized, literally
in millions of tons, for the production of sulphur,
•copper, oxide of iron, &c. A long list of instances of
this class might be adduced if it were necessary, some
of them of very great importance.*

The promotion of morality by enabling us to detect
crime, is one of the smaller influences of scientific
research, and may be referred to as a set-off against
the bad uses sometimes made of scientific knowledge.
The telegraph is very commonly employed to assist
in tracking and capturing criminals. Photography is
also largely used in our goals as a means of recog-
nising offenders.

Knowledge of science conduces also to self-discipline
and self-mastery, it tends to bridle our vicious
passions by making known to us the penalties which
must be paid for their indulgence ; it limits our self-
will by shewing us that we must respect and obey the

* See " Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances," by P. W. Simmonds.

General moral results of scientific knowledge. 153

laws of nature whether we are willing or not, no man
can improperly manipulate dangerous substances or
forces with impunity ; it moderates our bigotry by
exhibiting to us the great uncertainty of unproved
opinions. ; it restrains undue credulity in men's asser-
tions, by shewing us their frequent fallacy ; it gives
us confidence in the laws of nature, by proving to us
their uniformity ; it withdraws us from self-deception
by compelling us to accept the truths of nature as
they exist ready made for us, whether they harmonise
with our preconceived ideas or not ; men cannot
argue with nature, as they can with their fellow-men,
but must submit to the influence of verified truth.
It supplies us with principles instead of empirical
" rule of thumb " methods as guides of morality.
Whilst it liberates us from the terror of irrational fears,
it cautions us against entertaining unreasonable hopes.
It substitutes for ignorant wonder and awe, an intel-
ligent appreciation of created things ; and when
fully developed it will probably satisfy all the reason-
able instincts and desires of men.

Whilst law, medicine and divinity, direct man's
attention almost exclusively to matters concerning
himself, and thus tend to limit his sphere of percep-
tion and knowledge, and unconsciously impress him
with the idea that all other existences are less im-
portant than himself, science not only enlightens him
respecting all the departments of his own nature, but
extends his mental vision in all directions by exciting
his mind to observe and reflect upon all other bodies

154 General advantages of scientific knowledge.

and actions throughout the Universe. Whilst also
music, painting, sculpture, poetry and the drama,
afford excitement and pleasure to his senses, feelings
and sentiments, and are largely personal ; science not
only constitutes the basis of those arts, but shews the
relations of them to Man and to the external Universe,,
and thus more largely cultivates the intellect and cor-
rects and refines the senses, feelings and sentiments.

New scientific knowledge affords advantages to all
classes of men ; to the minister of religion, by supply-
ing him with new illustrations of Creative power, in
the greatness, smallness, and vast variety of nature ;
to the physician, by explaining to him more perfectly
the structure and phenomena of the human body, and
by providing him with new remedies ; to the states-
man and politician, by making known to him the
great and increasing relations of science to national
progress, by its influence upon wages, capital, the
employment of workmen, the art of war, the means of
communication with foreign countries, &c. ; to the
philanthropist, as an endless source of employment
for poor persons, by the development of new discover-
ies, inventions, and improvements in arts and manu-
factories ; to the military man, by affording him new
engines and materials for warfare and defence ; to the
inventor, by supplying him with new discoveries upon
which to found inventions ; to the merchant and man
of trade, by the influence of new products and
processes upon the prices of his commodities ; to the
manufacturer, as a means of improving his materials*

A buses of a Kno^vledge of Science. 155

apparatus, and processes ; and to the investor of
money, by assisting him to judge what new technical
schemes are likely to succeed.

As the domain of rational enjoyment afforded by
means of science gradually enlarges, that derivable
from less intellectual sources will probably be modi-
fied ; indeed this change is already progressing, and
is manifested in the alterations occurring in theologi-
cal views, and in the extensive adoption of scientific
entertainments by religious bodies. The recognition
of science by professors of religion is also shewn by
the already extensive use of railways on Sundays as
a means of conveyance to churches and chapels ; also-
by the publication by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, of Manuals of Electricity,
Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry, Crystallography,
Geology, Physiology, Zoology, Matter and Motion,
the Spectroscope, &c.

Having shewn some of the chief modes in which
new scientific truth is a basis of mental and moral
progress, it is not necessary to say much respecting
the evil uses sometimes made of science, because
every good thing is liable to be abused by ignorant or
ill-intentioned persons. The abuses of scientific
knowledge do not arise from the true spirit of re-
search, viz., a desire for new knowledge on account of
its intrinsic goodness and value to man, but from an
absence of that sentiment. The Bremerhaven ex-
plosion, the assassination of the Czar, the uses of
photography to forge letters of credit, and of the

156 Teachers of morality require scientific knowledge.

telegraph in swindling operations, the employment of
electro-gilding and silvering in coining base money,
&c., &c., are all attributable to motives other than a
love of science.

All the facts mentioned in this chapter, and the
various points of essential similarity between physical,
physiological, and mental phenomena, justify the
conclusion that both moral and other mental actions,
like physical and chemical ones, are obedient to the
great principles of science. And from the evidence
here adduced and alluded to, it is certain that those
principles influence human progress, not only in a few
conspicuous direct ways, but in a multitude of varied,
deep-seated, and indirect ones.

If the statements mad^ in this Chapter are true,
that the innate properties of matter really are motive
powers of the human organism, and the principles of
science are regulators of mental and moral action ;
that Man is a feeble epitome of the principles and
powers of inorganic matter ; that the laws of Nature
operate in utter disregard of his erroneous beliefs ; that
nearly all man's sins and sufferings are traceable to
his ignorance and limited powers ; that in proportion
to his ignorance of science so is he unable to foresee
the more remote consequences of his thoughts and acts;
and if new knowledge does correct erroneous beliefs
and purify human thought and action, it behoves
teachers of morality to make themselves adequately
acquainted with the principles and newest develop-
ments of science.

CHAPTER III.

NEW TRUTH, AND ITS GENERAL RELATION
TO HUMAN PROGRESS.

THE great source of the success of applying science
to trade, and of the beneficent effect of science upon
human welfare in general, is simply the influence of
demonstrable truth. We know that if we have once
discovered all the principles, laws, and conditions of
some scientific phenomenon, or of some improved
process or result in a manufacture, the reproduction
of exactly the same conditions will hereafter enable
us to invariably produce the same result. In this
respect science differs from dogma, the truth or falsity
of which cannot be demonstrated ; it also differs from
empiricism, because when empirically working a pro-
cess we are ignorant of the principles or laws which
are operating, whilst with a scientific knowledge we
understand those laws, and can direct them to our
particular purposes. In the process of electro-plating
for example, we understand the laws of the phenom-
ena, and can direct them so as to obtain silver of a
hard or soft quality, brittle or tough, crystalline
silver, &c., according to our wish ; but if we had only
an empirical knowledge of the subject we could not
thus vary the process.

158 Successful prediction a test of truth.

The highest test of truth is verified prediction ;
if we calculate beforehand that an eclipse of the Sun
will occur at a certain hour and minute, and that
eclipse occurs accurately at the predicted moment, we
may rest assured that our knowledge upon that point
is true and complete. If we say that a piece of clean
iron, immersed in a solution of blue vitriol, will become
covered with a layer of metallic copper, and we find
upon trial that this result invariably occurs when we
fulfil those conditions, we may be certain that our
knowledge of this phenomenon and its conditions is
also of a definite and certain character. Similarly,
when we become able to predict with certainty the
conditions of the Sun's surface, we shall probably also
be able to predict severe winters, famines, &c., and
therefore be prepared to suggest precautions to be
taken against them. Even now the new truth neces-
sary for this purpose is beginning to be evolved by
means of scientific research.*

Amongst the great axioms and principles of
science, possessing great certainty, and which enable
us to predict, are, 1st. the general truth known as the
Principle of Causation, that every effect has a cause;
that the same cause, acting under the same conitions,
always produces the same effect ; and that causation
acts through all time arid all space : — 2nd. the
great truth, that every phenomenon requiries time ;
and every substance occupies space : — $rd. the
Principles of Conservation and Persistency of Matter

* See "Barometer Cycles," by Balfour Stewart, F.R.S.— Nature, Jan. 13.
1881, p, 237.

The Chief Principles of Science. 15^

and Energy ; that out of nothing, nothing comes ;
and out of everything, everything proceeds ; that all
the future states of the Universe are implicitly con-
tained in and will be evolved out of the present state
of the Universe ; that we have no experience and
possess no verified knowledge either of creation or
annihilation of Matter or Energy; that we cannot
absolutely create or destroy even an idea ; * and that
Matter and Energy appear to be eternal : — ^th. the
Principle of Convertibility and Equivalency of the
different forms of Energy, according to which the
various forces known as mechanical power, heat,
light, electricity, magnetism, chemical action, &c.,
being modes of motion, are convertible into each
•other in equivalent quantities and without addition or
loss. These and other great principles constitute the
basis of physical and chemical science, by obeying
which, we have been enabled to evolve all the wonder-
ful practical realities of science of the present day.f
To these great principles may be added the more
concrete truth called the " Law of Progress," the
essential idea of which is time, a time-rate ; which
regulates the speed of increase of civilization, and is
evidently connected with the great truth that every
phenomenon occupies time.

The Principle of Gravitation, demonstrated by
Newton, explains a vast number of facts relating to
the motions of the Heavenly bodies : — the Undu-

* See p. 165, et seq.

t It would I consider be an improvement in our educational arrangements, if
a Professorial chair, solely devoted to teaching those laws and principles, existed
in each Scientific College.

1 60 Mental value of Scientific Principles.

latory Theory of Light, largely developed by the
labours of Fresnel, renders equally clear and syste-
matic an almost endless number and variety of
optical phenomena; Oersted's law of Electro-magne-
tism similarly explains and renders consistent a
multitude of facts respecting the movements of
magnets and electric conductors, which would other-
wise be confusing to remember and impossible to
satisfactorily explain. And the great mental value
of these comprehensive ideas to mankind, consists
largely in relieving the memory and diminishing
mental confusion, by co-ordinating a large number of
different facts and apparently inconsistent phenom-
ena by means of a general conception which embraces
the whole of them. Thus a knowledge of the Prin-
ciple of Gravitation informs us that both the ascent
of a balloon in the air, and the descent of a stone in
water, are alike due to the same force of gravity ; and
that of Chemical Affinity proves to us that the ap-
parently unlike phenomena of slow rusting of iron and
vivid combustion of phosphorus are essentially alike
and due to the same cause.

All bodies, whether living or dead, and all forms
of energy, appear to be absolutely subject to the great
laws of Causation, Progress, Conservation, &c., no one
can escape them ; the man who transgresses the Law
of Progress by being too much in advance of his
epoch, is punished as certainly as he who lags behind
it ; all must advance together, and at approximately
the prescribed rates.

Criterion of Truth iu Science.

The real source of all that is good in new scientific
knowledge arises from its verified and verifiable
character, its high degree of certainty, and its capacity
of withstanding all the tests which can be applied to*
it. By the term "scientific knowledge" in this case
I mean that only that which has been verified, and I
purposely exclude all matters of hypothesis, mere
opinion or belief. Scientific research is the chief basis
of national progress, not only because it is continually
disclosing new truths to us, but also because the truths
it reveals are frequently of the most definite kind.

As the term " verified truth " may appear vague,,
the questions may well be asked, what is truth ? And
how may we best detect it ? And especially what is-
new truth ? and how may it best be recognised ?•'
Truth may be conveniently defined as universal con-
sistency ; or that which perfectly conforms to facts,,
and agrees with the widest experience, when tested-
by means of all our intellectual powers, the reasoning
faculty in particular. The usual modern criterion of
it, is consistency with the fundamental axioms of
logic, and with all the great principles of nature as-
established by means of scientific research, such as-
the universality of causation, the continuity of phen-
omena, the indestructibility of matter and energy, the
convertibility and equivalency of forces, &c. All-
truth whatever is one in character by possessing the
inseparable attribute of complete consistency. The
truthfulness of scientific knowledge is proved by te
agreement with universal experience and with the

Q

1 62 Detection of New Truth.

fundamental logical, axioms : — a thing either is or is
not :--a thing cannot both be and not be : — a thing
must either be or not be : — things equal to the same
are equal to each other ; &c. It is chiefly by means
of knowledge of these axioms and of the above prin-
ciples of science, and of their varied and numerous
modes of operation and application, that the man of
science "explains" the multitudinous phenomena of
nature, predicts future events, and is enabled to dis-
cover new truths and develope new inventions in the
arts. Unlike other persons ; when he sees a new
effect, or hears of a new phenomenon, he at once
refers it to these principles, in order to test its
correctness or to explain it.

With regard to the detection of truth, that is often
a difficult and complex process. There exists no
royal or easy method ; usually it can only be recog-
nised by means of laborious and critical examination
of the whole of the evidence obtainable in the case ;
and even then we are often obliged to be satisfied
with only an approximation, or it may be with even a
mere probability. Frequently also the truthfulness or
otherwise of a statement cannot be decided in any
degree in consequence of the absence of suitable or
sufficient evidence, and for that we may have to wait
for ages. We are now waiting for evidence necessary to
-decide many questions respecting the human mind.

ith regard to the question, what is new truth ? ;
/I that also is a difficult one to solve. The forms in
If which different truths appear are so various, and those

floe
fe

^

General Sources of New Truth. 163

also in which even the same truth may shew itself
are so diverse, that it is often impossible to discrimin-
ate new truth from old ideas clothed in a new form of
words. The newness of an idea is entirely a question
of evidence, and to determine it, usually requires a
complete knowledge of all the circumstances affecting
the particular case.

New truth appears to be usually derived from new
physical or mental experiences of phenomena external
to our perceiving faculty ; either by observing matter
or its forces under new conditions or from a new
aspect; and the knowledge comes to us either through
the avenues of our feelings and senses, or by means of
direct observations, by comparison of such impres-
sions, or by inferences drawn from them. From the
results of such mental operations, additional new
truths are evolved by the more complex process of
analysis, combination and permutation of ideas. New
truths are also evolved from old ones by each of these
latter methods ; but sooner or later the implicit con-
tents of our stock of old knowledge becomes exhaus-
ted when used for such a purpose, and we are then
obliged to seek new experience.

As new truths may be acquired in the more direct
manner, by acquisition of new experience ; and less
directly, by mental operations upon old ideas, other
subjects of less fundamental and more concrete
nature than the simple sciences, such as sociology, &c.,
are also sources of progress, when treated in these
ways.

Q Q

1 64 General mode of discovering New Truth.

Of all subjects, the simple sciences of physics, and
chemistry, are at the present time, apparently making
the most rapid advance, and the chief reasons for this
probably are, \st. they treat of facts and principles
which can be verified, and 2nd. because the more
complex sciences, together with the arts and manufac-
tures based upon them, can only improve in pro-
portion as they are developed. All the essentially
human subjects, such as sociology, politics, morality,
religious worship, &c., are in this position, and are
probably results partly of the operation of the great
principles of nature acting through the body and
mind of man.

The chief method of discovering new truth is that
of observation, experiment, and study, and further
mental treatment of the results. The most systematic
methods also of evolving new truths are those em-
ployed by scientific men in making discoveries, and
when any person arrives at a new idea, he usually
(either consciously or unconsciously) employs them.

The acquisition of new knowledge must of necessity
precede its diffusion. Immediately a new truth, es-
pecially an important one, is discovered, its influence
begins to permeate the existing mass of knowledge in
various directions, causing us to view many of our old
ideas in a new aspect ; giving rise also by comparison
and inference, and by processes of combination, per-
mutation and analysis of ideas, to a multitude of other
new truths, usually less important ones, which them-
selves also affect previous knowledge in similar ways,

L imit of the I mag {nation. 1 6 5

and by analogous treatment give rise to additional
new conceptions.

But although we evolve truthful new conceptions
from previous ones by these purely mental methods,
there is a limit to the number capable of being evolved
from a limited stock of ideas, because the number of
combinations and permutations of such a stock, though
usually large, are themselves limited. The number
however is large in proportion to the degree of essen-
tial importance of the ideas, and is greatest when we
employ those of the fundamental principles of nature,
already referred to ; for instance a greater number of
new ideas have been evolved by means of appropriate
mental processes from the law of gravitation and
from that of electro-magnetism than from any minor
truth in science. Persons therefore who are the least
familiar with great demonstrable principles are usually
the least able to conceive new truthful ideas of intrin-
sic importance, or to draw new verifiable inferences of
much theoretical value.

Every inventor and student knows that he continu-
ally requires new materials of thought, and if he does
not obtain them, an obstacle, like a wall of adamant,
rises before his mind in all directions, and prevents
his forming new ideas. That also which is true of
each individual is true of the collection of individuals,
mankind ; if new truths are not obtained, the thoughts
of men flow in circles, and mental progress ceases.
The mental characteristics of sequestered communr
ties in remote isolated districts, are examples of this

1 66 Ideas are not created.

fact. The influence of printing, railways, telegraphs,
postal communication and other scientific develop-
ments, in aiding mental progress, afford other illustra-
tions. A multitude of facts of this kind, and many
others, leads us to the conclusion that each new idea
requires a cause to produce it, and that human know-
ledge is subject to the great law of causation ; also
that the creation of an idea out of nothing would be a
miracle, a phenomenon without a cause. Our present
knowledge was not created by us, but was originated
by previous knowledge and experience, including of
course inherited impressions. Even in what is termed
the " noblest effort of the mind," an act of reasoning
or inference, we do not create an idea, but only render
explicit in a new form of words, ideas already impli-
citly contained in the words of the propositions em-
ployed, as may easily be rendered manifest by
mechanical means in Jevons's "Logical Machine;" a
proper inference never contains more than its data.
In the so-called "creation " of ideas by the imagina-
tion also, the new ideas are evolved from old ones,
and rendered explicit by mental processes of analysis,
combination, permutation, &c. Our scientific in-
ventions also, being mental conceptions, an unr
limited number of them cannot be made by means
of a limited stock of old knowledge. It was in con-
sequence of this limit, viz,, the impossibility of
actually creating ideas out of nothing, that human
knowledge was not more advanced by metaphysical
speculations until science with its experiments and

Dependence of Progress upon Neiv Knowledge. 167

observations came to its assistance. These various
facts prove the statement made in the Preface of
this book, that present knowledge only enables man-
kind to maintain its present state.

Not only the mental, but also the physical advance
of mankind is essentially dependent upon the discovery
of new truths. Men's physical actions are determined
not alone by their inherited and acquired tendencies
and the influence of external nature upon them, but
also by their ideas ; as, a man thinks, so also to a
large extent does he act. Nations who do not adopt
new ideas do not either mentally or physically
advance, but change only so far as their immediate
surroundings change ; the Chinese are a remarkable
example of this ; even the tendencies which men in-
herit, were largely produced in their ancestors by the
influence of ideas. The great fact of the essential
dependence of human progress upon new knowledger
is a truth, the importance of which to man cannot be
over-estimated, and is one which statesmen, ministers-
of religion, and philanthropists should seriously study.

Much of the apparent advance of this nation how-
ever is not real. The great bulk of our newly
published knowledge, even that which is scientific,,
and considered by the public to be new, consists, not
of new truths, but of old ones dressed in new forms of
expression : —

" The tale repeated o'er and o'er,

With change of place and change of name.

Disguised, transformed, and yet the same

We've heard a hundred times before.'' — Longfellow.

-1 6 8 Less originality in Literature than in Science.

It falls to the lot of but comparatively few men to
discover or evolve important new truths. The great
majority of learned men also, have through all historic
'-time been occupied, and are still, not in evolving new
ideas, but in re-expressing old ones in different forms of
words; the literary spirit, is in civilised nations, almost
•universal. In ordinary writings it is a rare circum"
-stance to meet with an important and really new idea;
•it is usually in books written by men who are acquain-
ted or imbued with the great principles and truths of
:science, that the newest demonstrable ideas are most
frequently found. The difference between evolving
new ideas, and re-expressing and permutating old
<ones ; largely characterises the dissimilarity of the
scientific and the literary and theological minds. All
however are necessary to the welfare of mankind, the
former to advance and the other to maintain the con-
dition of man. If all were not necessary they would
probably not exist.

There are two great artificial divisions of scientific
knowledge also, upon the development of which
national progress largely depends, viz., knowledge of
inanimate matter and knowledge of man ; the latter
<we have largely cultivated but the former we have
.greatly neglected : — and even our study of man has
:been largely one-sided and literary. It is far less im-
portant to know what is man, than to know what are
the great principles which underlie the actions of all
living creatures, and in obedience to which man is
•compelled to work out his destiny in the Universe
and the infinite future.

Literature and Art more valued than Science. 169

It is evident from this, that much of the mental
activity around us is not progress, but rather a process
of maintaining present state, a prevention of decline,
a continually going round and round in conventional
varied step, a kind of intellectual mill. Under these
circumstances it is not the original discoverer, but he
who in this occupation, can best express old ideas, in
the most varied forms and choicest language, who is
most generally considered to be the greatest intel-
lectual chief.

Although originality even in literature and art is very
imperfectly encouraged in this country, both art and
literature are much more readily understood and ap-
preciated than scientific research, and treated as if
they were more important. Whilst most persons can
understand and appreciate the gift of a work of art to
a public art collection, few can understand or properly
value the discovery and gift of a new scientific truth
of far greater intrinsic value to the public stock of
knowledge ; the treatment received by Priestley and
other discoverers in comparison with that of local
donors, sufficiently illustrates this. Even publishers
of lucrative newspapers prefer to give prizes and pay
liberally for sensational tales, than to pay for articles
on the public advantages of new scientific knowledge.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROMOTION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

NEARLY the whole of the most distinguished
mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, and
physiologists of Great Britain, also the Earl of Derby,
the Marquis of Salisbury, Sir Stafford Northcote>
and many other eminent men, have given evidence
before the Royal Commissioners on "Scientific Instruc-
tion and the Advancement of Science"* to the follow-
ing effect: — 1st. That the promotion of original
scientific research is neglected in this country.
2nd. That such research is encouraged more by the
State in Germany than here. And $rd. That much
greater encouragement of it by our Government, by
the Universities and the Public, is highly neces-
sary to our commercial prosperity. They have also
stated in evidence their opinions as to the best
ways in which they consider it may be assisted. The
additional fact that all the greatest scientific men who
have ever existed have pursued research, and sacrificed
much for it, is a practical proof that they also approved
of its encouragement.

That research should be promoted is further the
opinion of many men learned in politics, literature,
art, and science. The views expressed in numerous
letters on the subject, received by me from Members

* See vols. i (1872) 2 (1874) of the Reports of that Commission

Correctness of the principle of aiding Research. 1 7 1

of the Privy Council, and of both Houses of Parlia-
ment, and from other eminent persons, confirm this.
It has also been adopted as a chief part of the pro-
gramme of the " Association for the Organization of
Academical Study." *

" M. de Candolle, Corresponding Member of the
Academy of Science, Paris, is a strong advocate for
the encouragement of a class of sinecurists like the
non-working Fellows of our Colleges, who should
have leisure to investigate and not be pestered by
the petty mechanical work of continued teaching and
examining." " The modern ideas of democracy are
adverse to places to which definite work is not
attached, and from which definite results do not
flow. This principle is a wise one for the mass of
mankind ; but is utterly misplaced when applied to
those who have the zeal for investigation, and who
work best when left quite alone."

The correctness of the principle of promoting re-
search is also recognised by our Governments in their
yearly grants of money to the Royal Society, and to
the Royal Irish Academy •(• to aid research, also by
the Council of the Chemical Society, which has estab-
lished a fund for the same purpose ; and by the
British Association in their annual grants for the
promotion of scientific enquiry. The Fishmonger's
Company also presented to Mr. W. R. Parker, F.R.S.,
the sum of £50, followed by an annual gift of £20 for

* See pages IDO and 101.

t "Nature," April 3rd, 1873, p. 431.

1/2 Examples of Promotion of Research.

the three years, to assist him in bearing the expenses
of his researches on the skulls of vertebrate animals.
And the British Pharmaceutical Conference voted
the sum of ^80 from the Bell and Hills fund, during
the period of three years, in aid of research in connec-
tion with pharmaceutical science. A small fund for
the purpose of research exists also at the Royal
Institution. Fellowships also with a similar object
have been founded at the Victoria University. Dr.
Priestley also was aided in his researches by contribu-
tions from a small circle of friends. In recognition of
the same principle, nearly all of the most eminent scien-
tific men on the Continent have been assisted by their
respective Governments. The total amount of aid to
research in this country is however very small, and to
one acquainted with the great commercial and other
any valuable results of such labour, it is simply as-
tounding that we have not systematically organized a
powerful means of promoting discovery.

A few scientific persons however still continue to
oppose aid to research ; quite recently, rcientific
investigators have been spoken of as a class of " men
amusing themselves without any result whatever." *
That idea however abundantly refuted in the fore-
going pages. It has also been remarked t that
" practically, endowment of research comes to the
creation of positions where there is payment without
corresponding labour." •' In England above all coun-
tries in the world, there will always be plenty of

* Sir Edmund Beckett, *' English Mechanic", 1881, No. 830, p. 560.
t The Earl of Craufurd, " Engl sk Mechanic" 1881, No. 830, p. 560.

Answers to Objections to State Aid of Research. 173

amateurs ready and willing to assist in research, and it
is notorious that in England, almost without exception,
all the great advances in science have been made by
such amateurs. Therefore I do not think it at al>
desirable that the British tax-payer should be required
to put his hand in his pocket to provide salaries for
gentlemen who might be working rightly or wrongly.
He could not control them, and while there are such
a body of amateurs in the country, I think the re-
searches may be very well left to them."

The first of these statements is not correct ; the
endowment of research does not amount to "payment
without corresponding labour." Scientific discoverers
have alwa}'s been distinguished as a body of men
intensely devoted to their labours, and willing to per-
form much work for small payment. Most of the
great advances in science also in England, have been
made not by " amateurs," but by men of great ex-
perience, such as Newton, Herschel, Priestley, Davy,
Faraday, Graham, and many others. Endowment of
research is not desired for wealthy amateurs, but for
investigators of proved ability and small pecuniary
means and who require assistance. Such men, although
not infallible, are the least likely to " work wrongly,"
and much less likely to do so than amateurs. Many
scientific investigators also of repute, object to give
their services wholly to a wealthy nation, because
they cannot afford to do so, and because it is only
just that the nation should make them some pecun-
iary return for their skill and labour. The great evils

1 74 Objections to State A id: — A nswers to them.

in this country requiring new knowledge to remedy
them* also prove that there are not " plenty of ama-
teurs ready and willing to assist in research here," or
that " the researches may be very well left to them."

Whilst some investigators have had abundant means
to carry on research, and have excelled in that occu-
pation, many of the most eminent have been persons
of limited circumstances ; and their insufficient pecun-
iary means has often restricted their degree of success.
The argument also that insufficiency of means stimu-
lates research, is only employed by persons who are
not making investigations under such a condition.

The President of the Royal Society, Dr. Spottis-
woode, in his recent address,')' also remarked : — " The
question has been raised whether it be wise, even in
the interests of science, to encourage any one not yet
of independent income, to interrupt the main business
of his life. It is too often assumed that a profession
or a business may be worked at half speed, or may be
laid down and taken up again, whenever we like. But
this is not so, and a profession temporarily, or even
partially laid aside, may prove irrecoverable, and the
temptation to diverge from the dull and laborious path
of business may prove to have been a snare." Each of
these remarks appears to be made upon the assump-
tion that it is still a doubtful question whether persons
qualified for research should be encouraged or not to
abandon occupations they reluctantly follow, and for
which they are less fitted, in order to become scientific

* See page 68, et seq. p. 134.

t See " Nature," Dec. and, 1880, p. 11.2.

Objections to State A id, continued.

discoverers. As it is a fact that the welfare of this
country is suffering through deficiency of encourage-
ment of research, it is certainly desirable to encourage,
by every proper means, qualified persons to occupy
themselves in such labour. Some of the greatest
discoveries have been made by men "not yet of in-
dependent income," for instance, those made by
Scheele, Priestley, Dalton, Faraday, W. Herschel,
and many others.

The late Astronomer Royal, also,* who has made
many researches, and was a scientific official paid
by the State, says : — " I think that successful re-
searches have in nearly every instance originated with
private persons, or with persons whose positions were
so nearly private that the investigators acted under
private influence, without incurring the danger attend-
ing connection with the State. Certainly I do not
consider a Government is justified in endeavouring to
force, at public expense, investigations of undefined
character, and, at best, of doubtful utility ; and I
think it probable that any such attempt will lead to
consequences disreputable to science. The very
utmost, in my opinion, to which the State should be
expected to contribute, is exhibited in the large
grants intrusted to the Royal Society. The world, I
think, is not unanimous in believing that they have
been useful." He then enumerates what he considers
" the proper foundations of claims upon the State,"
which he illustrates, and substantially includes in and

* "English Mechanic" 1881, No. 831, pp. 586, 587.

176 Objections and Answers, continued.

limits by, the kinds of scientific research done under
his direction at the' Royal Observatory. He further
adds — "The Royal Observatory was founded express-
ly for a definite utilitarian purpose (the promotion of
navigation) necessarily connected with the highest
science. And this utilitarian purpose has been steadily
kept in view for two centuries, and is now followed
with greater vigour than ever before. To its original
plan have also been added — but still in the utilitarian
sense — the publication of time, the broader obser-
vation of terrestrial magnetism, and local meteorology.''
His views therefore appear to be, that State aid to
research should be limited to utilitarian objects ; and
that it is with propriety given to his own department,
which is connected with the State. It has however
been abundantly proved that nearly all the great scien-
tific utilities of every-day life, had their origin in the
pursuit, not of utilities, but of pure truth, and that imme-
diate usefulness is neither the most successful nor the
highest motive in scientific research, nor should re-
search be limited by so narrow a condition. The in-
vestigations also made by the aid of Government Grants
possess the usual degree of definiteness and of utility
of such labours, and it cannot be reasonably expec-
ted that the world would be unanimous respecting
any measure, especially respecting a subject so
little understood by the public as the Endowment of
Research.

If investigators were to limit their researches to
utilities, or what appeared to be such, scarcely any

A nswers continued, 1 7 /

essentially new experiments or new discoveries of
importance would be made. No attempts would be
made to discover essentially novel facts, nor would
many trials be made to test fundamental abstract
questions which affect the very basis of scientific
knowledge. The principles of electro-magnetism, of
magneto-electric action, and of the magnetic rotation
of polarized light, were each discovered by means of
perfectly novel experiments, in which immediate
utility was not the motive.

It is worthy of notice that of the very small propor-
tion of scientific investigators who disapprove of
State aid to Research, nearly every one already pos-
sesses sufficient pecuniary means to carry on investi-
gations, and therefore cannot adequately appreciate
the position and necessities of investigators having
only small incomes. In some cases also the objections
to aid investigators come from scientific men who have
attempted to make discoveries but have not
succeeded.

Dr. Robinson of Armagh, a well-known investigator,
has very properly pointed out * what has been done
in this country towards giving assistance to those en-
gaged in the pursuit of science, and mentions the
Observatories maintained by the Universities and by
the Nation. He says also that if anything more were
to be done in increasing the amount of grants of
money to assist scientific work, he thinks " it might
be best applied in establishing in the great commercial

* "English Mechanic," August i7th, 1881, p. 83.

K

178 Opponents of original research.

centres of the realm, physical and chemical labora-
tories such as that which the Duke of Devonshire has
established at Cambridge, provided with the most
refined apparatus, and accessible to all who are con-
sidered privileged by a competent tribunal." He also
says "when there is found a man so far surpassing his
fellows in any department of science that he may be
expected to do work beyond their power, he ought to
be made independent of any other pursuit, so that
none of his time and energy may be lost, such a case
is exceptional, and when it occurs it should be excep-
tionally provided for."

Original research will for a long time to come, be
opposed by a large section of the non-scientific
public : — by the numerous persons whose source of
income depends upon the ignorance of their fellow-
men : — by those who are deficient of faith in demon-
strable truth, and fear that their most cherished
beliefs are endangered by it : — and by many of those
who are insufficiently acquainted with it to perceive
its great value to mankind.

With regard to the fears of many objectors that the
Endowment of Research would lead to jobbery and
abuses, and thus retard the progress of discovery
instead of promoting it ; it is evident that such a risk
is an inseparable concomitant of every remunerated
office and is not peculiar to that of research, and must
therefore be accepted as unavoidable and be provided
against in the usual ways. It does not however appear
probable that the risk in this respect is at all greater

Sources of income of Men of Science. 179

than that already existing and provided against in
many other appointments.

Many persons, not clearly perceiving the difference
between pure research and other scientific occupa-
tions, suppose that because science is encouraged in
various ways in this country ; and because sums of
money are occasionally given to scientific institutions,
and some scientific men are evidently receiving good
incomes, that discoverers are remunerated, but this is
a great mistake ; there is probably not a scientific
man in the kingdom who is wholly employed in such
Avork in abstract physics or chemistry, and paid for
his entire skill, time, and labour. Wherever payment
is made for scientific labour, it is nearly always for that
performed with a view to some immediate practical
application. Inventors and expositors are remunera-
ted, but discoverers are not.

At the present time in this country scientific men
are paid for teaching, lecturing, writing popular
scientific articles, compiling scientific books, editing
scientific journals, making chemical analyses and ex-
periments for manufacturers, companies, and others,
for practical purposes, or to obtain evidence for legal
cases, giving evidence on scientific subjects in courts
of law, with consultations and advice to manufacturers
and others, superintending scientific commercial un-
dertakings, &c. Some also unfortunately obtain an
income and cheap publicity by the empirical contri-
vance of selling to tradesmen, their scientific opinions
in the form of testimonials which are extensively

R R

1 80 Unsaleable nature of discoveries.

advertised at the cost of the purchasers. But not one
of these occupations constitutes pure research, or is an
immediate source of new discoveries. Payment is
made for all kinds of scientific labour which will im-
mediately benefit individuals or corporations, but
very little for pure investigation, and nearly every
inducement exists to attract men of science from
pursuing such labour.

It might be supposed that investigators would
patent or sell their discoveries ; but discoveries in
pure science cannot usually be patented or sold,
because they have not been converted by invention
into commercial commodities. New scientific truth is
utterly unsaleable ; no one will purchase it. Whilst
the real or intrinsic value of it is great, its extrinsic
value is small and is the sum of money it will sell for
in the market. No one would have purchased Oersted's
great discovery of electro-magnetism. It would also
be less to public advantage if investigators were to
neglect discovering new knowledge in order to apply
that knowledge to practical uses. It requires a
different training of mental power to discover new
truths, than to utilize them by means of invention,
teaching or lecturing ; and men who can invent and
instruct are far more numerous than those who are
able to discover. Discoveries are also generally much
more valuable than inventions, because a single dis-
covery (that of gutta percha for example) not
unfrequently forms the basis of many inventions.
Discoverers not unfrequently meet with new facts

i

*•;

Impossibility of monopolising discoveries. 1 8 1

which they perceive might be applied to valuable
technical uses, but they hesitate to patent them
because the process of invention, taking out a patent,
seeking a manufacturer to work it, and protecting
their patent from piracy, would occupy a large
portion of their time, and take them away from re-
search. Sir D. Brewster got no money by patenting
his kaleidoscope because the patent was instantly
pirated in all directions.

Some persons have suggested that scientific men
should keep their discoveries secret, but this would
usually be a greater disadvantage to the investigator
even than publishing them, and no one would then
derive any benefit ; discoveries also, being often
capable of numerous applications, and not being in a
saleable shape, cannot usually be monopolised by any
one. New scientific knowledge is like a powerful
light, it cannot be hidden. Discoveries are eminently
national knowledge, and research should therefore be
national employment.

Other persons suppose that investigators should be
satisfied with the fame of their discoveries, and not
require any payment ; but this is a most unfair sup-
position, because no man can live without means, and
every useful person deserves to be paid for his labour.
Ought the late Duke of Wellington to have been
satisfied with the fame alone of his exploits, without
being paid any salary ? Ought a Bishop to be con-
tent with the renown of his eloquence, without receiv-
ing any payment for his services ? Genius alone is

1 82 Suggested mode of rewarding discoverers.

appropriately rewarded by fame, but time, unusual
skill, labour and expenditure, should be repaid by
money.

It has been suggested that an investigator, if he is
a man of practical ability, is very often put into an
office, the duties of which he can efficiently discharge,,
and yet have leisure for original research, as in the case
of the late Dr. Graham, the eminent Master of the Mint,*
our Astronomers Royal, &c., and thus obtain his
reward. But this is a very imperfect plan, because
research is very difficult, and to be carried out effec-
tualy, requires the whole of a man's time and atten-
tion ; the investigator would also be taken from more
important work to do that which is of less value to
the nation, and which might be performed by a more
suitable person ; appointments also of the kind
referred to are much too few in number. Such a plan
as this, of relegating important national work to odd
hours spared from official duties, is a makeshift, and
quite unworthy of this nation. Entire occupation in
research, combined with efficient publication of the
results, is the only satisfactory plan of procedure.

Probably one of the most satisfactory ways of re-
warding scientific discoverers and serving national
interests at the same time, would be to create salaried
professorships of original research, and appoint dis-
coverers of repute to fill them.

The time is near at hand when this nation will be
compelled by the injurious consequences arising from
its neglect of scientific research, to acquire a know-

* The Mastership of the Mint is no longer given to scientific men.

Discoverers should be paid from public funds. 1 8 3

ledge of the relations of science to national existence
and welfare, and to adopt some means of encouraging
discovery. The greatest difficulty, probably, which
has to be overcome, is not so much how to obtain
funds for the purpose, as how to employ them suc-
cessfully, and especially how to prevent their getting
into the hands of unsuitable persons. But, as methods
have been found of remunerating all other classes of
persons, ways may be devised of remunerating scien-
tific investigators. It is only because the case is novel
that it seems difficult ; it is probably no more intrin-
sically difficult to establish a professorship of research
than to found an ecclesiastical benefice.

The great difficulty of determining from what source
discoverers should be paid for their labours, arises
from the fact that all classes of the community share
in the benefit. It is evident they should in some
measure be paid from a source towards which all
classes either directly or indirectly contribute, and
therefore from some public fund. The persons who first
use scientific knowledge are the compilers of scientific
books, and teachers of science ; but these only dis-
seminate the knowledge, and do not derive from it
any great pecuniary advantage, they are only the
agents for supplying the knowledge to others. The
persons who first convert such knowledge into valua-
ble commercial commodities are inventors and manu-
facturers who have received scientific education or
advice ; but those who derive the greatest pecuniary
benefit from it, and who should therefore either

184 National loss by non-payment for research.

directly or indirectly pay in the largest degree for it,
are the great manufacturers, capitalists, and land-
owners. Whilst the question is being settled as to
what class of persons shall primarily bear the expense
of research, discoverers themselves are suffering
.great injustice, and our manufactures and com-
merce are passing into the hands of foreign nations.
What the amount of loss and disadvantage suffered
by this nation, through want of encouragement of
.scientific enquiry is, cannot be estimated, but it is
certainly enormous. Had even a very moderate am-
ount of payment been made for such labour, and the
.expenses out of pocket paid in full, the amount of
research performed would have been greatly increased.
Under present circumstances, many promising
young men, fitted to become good investigators, have
been driven out of science althogether. I have found
by long experience and persistent enquiry, that there
,are many young men distributed over this country,
who are very desirous of engaging in scientific re-
search, and likely to make good investigators, but are
entirely prevented by the non-remunerative character
of the labour , every one wishes to know " what will
it lead to " ? Even amongst our most able discover-
ers, scarcely one who has not possessed private means
has continued research beyond the middle age of life,
because such labour enables no provision to be made
for old age ; and all those who have left have devoted
themselves to less important but more lucrative
occupations. Most of these gentlemen have been

Discouragement to research in England. 185

•obliged to abandon research at a period of life when
their faculties were in the most perfect state for con-
tinuing it.

Where one young beginner in science meets with
the fortunate circumstance of a helping hand, as
Scheele did in Bergmann, and Faraday in Davy,
many are crushed out. The want of encouragement
to scientific discovery in this country is so very great
that extremely few men are able to struggle through
it, and this is one reason why we have had so few
discoveries. Some persons have argued that the very
difficulties and discouragements offered are an advan-
tage to science by producing only men of the very
highest eminence in discovery; but it is manifest that
however great the amount of ability may be that is
developed by discouragement, that amount would
probably be still greater by judicious assistance.
Moreover, progress in the developement of the
national scientific intellect is not so much to be
reckoned by the few great successes which have
occurred in spite of all obstacles, but rather by the
much more numerous ones which would have resulted
from proper encouragement. The advocates of such
an argument can have no idea of the heart-sickening
feeling of long deferred hope experienced by the
young beginner in science ; or the disgust gradually
engendered in his mind at the injustice of other men
taking all the profits of his labours and leaving him
without means of support ; or they would never
adduce it. In this country the success of the few em-

1 86 Plans proposed for aiding Research.

inent men of science has resulted from the accidental
combination of a few more or less fortuitious circum-
stances, and their own great natural determination,
and not from legitimate and just support. How
many investigators we have lost from the above
causes it is impossible to tell. The encouragement
also of unusual ability should not be left to accident.

As scientific research has proved itself to be of
such great value to this nation, the question naturally
arises, how can it best be promoted ? A number of
plans have been proposed. Amongst these may be
mentioned. \st. By founding State Laboratories, in
which discoverers of established repute, supplied with
every aid and appliance, should be wholly engaged in
research in their respective subjects, and be paid by
the State. 2nd. By founding colleges or Professor-
ships of original research in each of the Universities,
and appointing professors similarly, ^rd. By found-
ing provincial colleges or Professorships of research,
the funds being raised locally by means of subscrip-
tions, donations, and endowments, with or without
State assistance, ^tk. By State or Local aid, in
the form of additional salary, to Professors in
colleges, to enable them to pursue research. 5///. By
an extension of the present Government grants dis-
tributed by the Royal Society. 6th. By making it a
condition at each of our Universities that every
student entering for a degree in science, should pre-
viously make an original research. 'jth. By the
formation by learned societies, of Endowment of

Aid to Research by founding State Laboratories.

Research Funds, and making grants of money there-
from to recognised investigators. %th. By aid to local
scientific investigators by Municipal bodies out of the
rates. And tyh. The support of Institutes of Scientific
Research by private munificence, Aid to research, in
Germany, has^ chiefly been made by the State, by
affording means to the Professors in the Universities;
in America, more by munificence of wealthy individu-
als; and in this country, chiefly in the form of Gov-
ernment grants of money to investigators. The
greatest difficulty to be surmounted in carrying out
any of these schemes, is the very general ignorance in
this country of the value and necessity of research;
and this can only be overcome by scientific men
themselves performing their duty of enlightening the
public on the subject.

1st. By founding State Laboratories. One of the
first duties of a Government is to protect its subjects
in the enjoyment of their property ; but as no law
reserves to discoverers the fruits of their ability, it is
clearly a duty of the State to protect them in other
ways. It is believed to be a duty of the State to-
provide and pay for pure scientific research, for the
following reasons : — because research is eminently
national work ; because the results of such labour are
indispensable to national welfare and progress, and
are of immense value to the nation, and especially to
the Government ; because nearly the whole pecuniary
benefit of it goes to the nation, and scarcely any to
the discoverer ; because research is not sufficiently

1 8 8 Funds for supporting State Lab or a tories.

provided for by means of voluntary effort, nor can its
benefits be restricted to a locality ; and because there
appears to be scarcely any other way (except by ap-
plication of University revenues) in which discoverers
•can be satisfactorily recompenced for their labour.
Also " Government should for its own sake honour
the men who do honour and service to the country."
(Faraday.)

The founding of State laboratories for original re-
search was proposed and advocated by the late
Lieutenant-Colonel Strange, F.R.S., in communica-
tions read before the British Association, and in
-evidence given before the Royal Commissioners.* As
the erection and maintenance of State laboratories
would require a large sum of money, and as all classes
•of the community would share in the benefit, it is
reasonable to suggest that the money should come
from some source towards which all classes of the
community, either directly or indirectly contribute,
and therefore from some national fund.

In national improvements, expense is quite a second-
ary consideration ; the funds however for providing
State laboratories already exist ; the sum of nearly
;£ 600,000 has accumulated in the form of fees received
by Government for the granting of patents for inven-
tions ; and as the discoveries made by scientific men
form the materials by means of which those inven-
tions were made, the money thus accumulated may
be justly claimed by scientific discoverers as a suitable

* See Reports of Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and Advancement
of Science, Vol. 2, pp. 75 92.

Support of State Laboratories by Patent Fees. 189

source from which their labours should be remu-
erated by the State.

Strong arguments might be adduced both against
and in favour of the application of this money for the
purpose. Inventors are a great wealth-producing
class of the community ; they are at present very
highly taxed, and receive but little advantage in re-
turn ; to tax them without giving them equivalent
advantages, strikes very near to the root of commer-
cial prosperity, by diminishing improvements in arts
and manufactures. If an inventor is poor and his
patent is valuable, he is also frequently harassed out
of it by litigation. Inventors are usually poor, and
but little able to pay taxes on patents at all ; their
pecuniary position in this country is not greatly better
than that of discoverers ; they are largely at the
mercy of manufacturers and capitalists ; and the in-
justice to which they are sometimes subjected is
notorious and disgraceful. On the other hand, the
fund already exists ; inventors also receive an equiv-
alent from investigators, discovery is the indispensable
basis of nearly all invention ; patented inventions are
formed by means of the knowledge obtained by pure
scientific research. The poverty of a man does not
justify his taking the fruits of the labours of another
man without paying for them. If also the patent fees
were thus applied, the cost of research would then be
paid for by all classes of the community, somewhat in
proportion to the benefit derived, because the cost of
patents in general ultimately falls upon the public at

igo Ignorance, the primary obstacle to research.

large, in the shape of an increased price put upon the
commodity, in order to pay the cost of the patent,
like the grower of wheat is paid by the consumers of
bread, through the medium of the baker, the miller,
and corn merchant.

Whilst the benefits derived from the labours of
-discoverers, flows chiefly in the form of money into
the hands of wealthy manufacturers, and finally gets
locked up in the possession of capitalists and land-
owners, it is hardly to be expected that the Govern-
ment will be in possession of funds necessary to
promote research unless some such plan as this is
adopted. Should the wealthy and governing classes
however become sufficiently acquainted with the
value of research, and of the essential and permanent
dependence of their material prosperity upon it, there
will then be some hope that they will be willing to
contribute in a more direct manner their just share
towards paying the expenses. There is, however, but
little prospect of this whilst the influence of wealth so
depresses the scientific education of those classes at
the Universities.

The fundamental object in founding State labora-
tories should be to keep a staff of the most competent
men wholly engaged in original research in pure
science, and a secondary object might be to train as-
sistants to become investigators. Such laboratories
would doubtless be located in London, and be on a
scale of magnitude creditable to science and the
nation. They might very suitably include depart-

Subjects of research in State Laboratories. 191

ments for the simpler pure sciences and even for
biology.

It is manifest that the arguments which support the
proposition for professorships of original research in
those sciences apply in a greater or less degree to
other sciences ; and it has been stated that " there is
no ground upon which the scheme can be limited to
the subject of natural philosophy." In reference to
this remark, (which, like most objections, contains
some truth), it must be remembered that there is a
natural order of dependence of the sciences upon each
other, in which order also they are being evolved. It
is a general truth that the physical sciences of light
and heat are based upon mechanical conditions of the
particles of matter ; that the science of chemistry is
founded upon physics ; that biological phenomena
are dependent upon physical and chemical conditions;
that psychological subjects are based upon biology ;
and that biological science cannot progress excepting
in proportion to the advance of the sciences on which
it is based. In addition to this general order of pre-
cedence of evolution in point of time, the various
sciences are so mutually related that all must advance
together, the simple ones taking the lead, and the
concrete and more complex sciences, with their at-
tendant arts, following behind.

As this natural order of dependence and develop-
ment of the sciences is a great fact of nature, over
which we have little or no control, and as a scheme
for the simultaneous establishment of professorships
of research in all the sciences, simple, complex, and

192 Selection of Workers for State Laboratories.

concrete, would probably be too great an undertaking,
the most proper course would be to commence with
the simpler ones, such as those of mathematics,
mechanics, physics, and chemistry, and perhaps
biology. If it be argued that it would be unadvisable
to commence with the simple and purely experimental
sciences, it would be still more unadvisable to com-
mence with the concrete subjects of "natural history,
medicine, civil history, law, and theology," or with the
arts which also depend upon science.

The number of investigators in such an institution
would not be large, because few of high repute could
be obtained, many of our ablest ones abandon re-
search for remunerative pursuits. In order to make
the plan succeed, the conditions of the appointments
should be such as to limit the election to the most
competent persons. In the selection of such gentle-
men, the verdict of opinion of scientific men generally,
upon the published researches of the candidates, would
have previously determined who were qualified for
the office. Any man who had published reliable
papers in the Transactions of the Royal Society,
might very properly be considered a fit candidate,
and the selection and appointment might be made by
the Government, with the advice of the Council of the
Royal Society.

Probably there exists no class of persons upon
whom the country might more rely for industry in
office than eminent investigators, because they have
pursued truth for its good effects alone. Men who had

Conditions of appointment of Professors of Research. 193'

previously exercised the degree of self-sacrifice neces-
sary to make a number of long and difficult experi-
mental researches, with only very limited pecuniary
means, must necessarily be possessed of great en-
thusiasm in their calling, and would therefore be
extremely unlikely persons to become idle by being,
supplied with a sufficiency only of means to carry on:
their labours. Further, such men might at present
obtain a much larger income than they wonld receive
in such a post, by abandoning research and devoting
themselves to the various profitable engagements-
which are open to every man of scientific ability who
is willing to devote himself to applied science. The
actual work of research is much too arduous and diffi-
cult to permit such an office to become an object of
desire to a place-seeking or idle person. But in order
to exclude with certainty those who might devote
themselves to research solely or primarily for the pur-
pose of subsequently obtaining a well paid appoint-
ment, (as persons sometimes devote themselves to learn-
ing, with the object of getting an " idle Fellowship,")
and to ensure in all cases a reasonable continuance of
industry, it would be necessary, that whilst the salaries
paid should be sufficient to render the professors free
from care, if expended with a reasonable degree of
economy, they should not be so large as to conduce to
idleness. The professors should undertake not to
engage in any other remunerative employment, and
provision should be made, that in case a professor
persistently failed to make, complete, or publish his

194 Difficult nature of Scientific Research.

researches, or devoted less than the stipulated amount
of time to such labour in the Institution, without
reasonable cause, he should be removed.

Many persons fancy that " it must be very nice to
be always making experiments," and that they " should
be delighted with such an occupation" if they " could
only spare the time." But such an idea is only
another illustration of the general ignorance of the
subject, and it is only expressed by those who have
never made a laborious and difficult research. Pure
research is by far the most difficult of all scientific
occupations, and this is another chief reason why
discoverers are few, and why they will probably
remain so.

To succeed in research, a man must set aside all
human pride, and approach the subject with perfect
humility ; and this is not an easy task, men cannot so
readily abandon preconceived and cherished notions.
Many researches are moreover extremely dangerous.
Thilorier was killed by the explosion of a vessel of
liquefied carbonic anhydride ; Dulong lost an eye and
finger, and Sir Humphrey Davy was wounded by an
explosion of chloride of nitrogen. Faraday was near
being blinded by an experiment with oxygen. Nickles
of Nancy, and Louyet of Brussels, lost their lives, and
two other chemists were seriously injured in health by
exposure to the excessively dangerous fumes of
hydrofluoric acid. Bunsen lost the sight of an eye
and was nearly poisoned by an explosion whilst an-
alysing cyanide of cacodyl.* Hennel was killed by an

*See '''Nature" No. 600, p. 597, April 28th, 1881.

Research involves substantial work.

explosion of fulminate of silver, and Chapman by
one of nitrate of methyl ; and nearly every chemical
investigator could tell of some narrow escape of life
in his own experience. Any one who wishes to know
whether it is " very nice to be always making experi-
ments " should attempt the isolation of fluorine, the
chemical examination of some offensive substance, or
the determination of some difficult physical, or chemi-
cal problem.

That a professorship of original research would
•" involve substantial work " does not admit of doubt,
and therefore " there would be some security that it
would be worthily bestowed." It would not become
an "ornamental sinecure," in which "there is pay
but no work," unless, by assigning to it too large a
stipend, inducement was held out to that numerous
class of persons whose love of money is stronger than
their love of truth, to seek the office ; to say the
utmost, it could hardly become so largely a sinecure
as many offices now held by ecclesiastics. Jobbery
and abuse of patronage would be still further pre-
vented by making the duties sufficiently heavy.

The appointment, and remuneration by salary, of
professor of research, would not lessen the inde-
pendence of scientific men if the office was not placed
under the superintendence of active and interfering
officials ignorant of science. Although the professors
might not be highly paid, the appointment would in-
crease their independence, because it would be one of
the most honourable to which scientific men could

196 Conditions of Research in State Laboratories.

attain, and because they would thereby be put into a
sphere in which they could exercise their talents to
the fullest extent, and render the greatest service and
honour to the nation. If also the salaries offered were
not too great, those persons only would become candi-
dates who at present have insufficient means to defray
the considerable cost of experiments.

It would be necessary to appoint only persons who
would undertake to devote their time solely to the
discovery of new facts and principles in science, and
the determination of purely scientific questions, and
not to the making of inventions ; because discovery
is of far greater national value than invention ; and
because inventions would immediately on their publi-
cation be seized, modified, and patented by individuals
for their own personal benefit. Discoveries, on the
other hand, would require a large additional amount
of labour expended upon them by inventors before
they could be converted into saleable commodities.

Each professor should be allowed perfect freedom
to choose his own special subjects of research in the
sciences he had been accustomed to study, because
each investigator is usually the best judge of what
researches are the most likely to yield him important
results. No discoverer of repute would be very likely
to trespass on another man's sphere of research, be-
cause he would usually have an abundance of good
subjects of his own ; and every honourable man would
purposely avoid doing so ; and we find this practically
to be the case at the present time. Separate sets of

Discoveries made in State Laboratories. 197

rooms would be necessary for each investigator in
order to keep the researches private and distinct.

The whole of the new knowledge obtained by re-
search should be treated as national property, and all
of it worthy of publication should be made known
without the least reserve, it would also be desirable
to publish the results at reasonable intervals of time.
The publication might take place, as at present, in
the journals of the learned Societies, or in the leading
scientific magazines, and the value of the work would
be largely guaranteed by such a mode of publication-
The professors should also engage not to sell, patent,
or prematurely disclose any of the knowledge obtained.
By electing to such offices only discoverers of repute,
the nation might reasonably depend for the results
upon the known ability and industry of the men. That
the results obtained would, many of them, be highly
valuable, does not admit of doubt, because long ex-
perience has uniformly proved it ; but no discoverer
can tell beforehand what results he will obtain, other-
wise research would hardly be needed.

An objection has been made that no one can tell
how long it will be after a discovery is made before
the nation will derive the chief benefit. The length of
time which elapses between the publication of dis-
coveries and their practical fruits is very variable.
Usually benefit commences at once and gradually
widens ; directly discoveries are published they begin
to be used by compilers of scientific books, and by
teachers and lecturers in science, and are thus diffused

198 Valuation of Scientific Discoveries.

amongst the public in general, and begin to produce
beneficial- effects. Inventors, manufacturers, medical
men, and others, also begin to apply them to their re-
spective purposes. In some cases striking applications
are immediately made of them, and public attention
is thus directed to the useful result ; but in many
cases the beneficial effects are small, numerous, and
indirect, and it is difficult to trace and describe them.
The objection also is deficient in force, because expen-
diture in any other occupation, and receipt of the
profit upon it, are rarely simultaneous. Many of the
wisest reforms in this country have been a long time
in producing their results. We must therefore be con-
tent, as in all ordinary cases of investment, with the
conviction that the expenditure will be profitable, and
we must wait patiently for the certain harvest. In
research, as in many other human enterprises, a man
who will not move until he is absolutely certain that
what he intends to do will at at once succeed, must
sit still and perish.

Suggestions have also been made to appoint a
Government Committee, or Council, whose function
should be to value scientific discoveries, and make
corresponding amounts of reward to the discoverers.
But this appears to be a less feasible plan, because
no man can, at the period of discovery, determine
what amount of practical result a discovery will
ultimately produce. Who could have foretold
with certainty at the date of Oersted's discovery of
electro-magnetism, that this discovery would result in

The proper basis of payment for research. 199

the expenditure of hundreds of millions of pounds
upon telegraphs alone ? *

Objections have been made to definite payment for
labour in research, on the ground of indefiniteness of
the results, and the impossibility of measuring their
value. Can we expect to buy new scientific knowledge
at so much a pound, or to retail discovery by the pint ?
The work of discoverers is as definite as that of many
other persons who are paid. Who can measure the
value of the cure of souls, of the duties of a judge, or of
those of a field-marshal ? Instead of paying for the
labour of research in a definite way, we have adopted
unsatisfactoiy makeshifts. Exceptional gifts, and semi-
charitable pensions, have been with difficulty obtained
in a few cases for scientific men ; most often for those
who applied scientific knowledge to practical uses
than for those who discovered that knowledge. In
this country, neither lawyers, medical men, military
persons, nor clergymen are paid definitely by results,
but by time and labour, in accordance with the re-
putation of the man, and there is no sufficient reason
why investigators should not be similarily remunerated.
The differences in the cases are only ones of degree.

The time has arrived when this great evil should
be made known and remedied, and men of science
should press upon our Government, as a matter of
justice to themselves, and necessary for the nation's
welfare, that the accumulated fees from patents should
be applied to the establishment of a Scientific depart-

* A fleet of thirty ships, varying in size from 500 to 5000 tons each, is employed
in laying and repairing telegraph cables, and 25 millions of pounds have already been
invested in sue/marine cable enterprises.

;2OO Professorships of Research in the Universities.

ment of the State, the erection of State laboratories,
.and the payment of discoverers for the national work
vof research.

2nd. Professorships of Research at the Universities.
Most of the remarks already made respecting the
.appointment and maintenance of professors of research
in State laboratories, would apply equally to those
proposed in connection with the Universities. Amongst
the reasons which may be adduced in favour of the
establishment of such professorships the following
may be selected. Because the advancement of learn-
ing is peculiarly the function of a University, and one
,of the chief objects for which such institutions were
founded. The word University implies a seat of uni-
versal knowledge, and it is reasonable to assume that
Universities should act as fountains of new theoretical
knowledge, as well as perform the function of dif-
fusing it ; such an addition would also raise their
intellectual position, and make them much more
jespected, both at home and abroad.

With regard to such professorships, the " Associa-
tion for the Organization of Academical Study," con-
sisting of a number of learned men belonging to the
Universities, the Royal Society, and other learned
foodies, adopted the following resolutions : —

" That the chief end to be kept in view in any re-
.distribution of the revenues of Oxford and Cambridge
is the adequate maintenance of Mature Study and
Scientific Research, as well for their own sake as with
:the view of bringing the higher education within the

Funds applicable to Research at our Universities. 20 1

reach of all who are desirous of profiting by it."
41 That to have a class of men whose lives are devoted
to research is a national object." " That it is de-
sirable, in the interest of national progress and
education, that Professorships and special institutions
shall be founded in the Universities for the promotion
of Scientific Research." " That the present mode of
awarding Fellowships as prizes, has been unsuccessful
as a means of promoting Mature Study and Original
Research, and that it is therefore desirable that it
should be discontinued."

With regard to the funds necessary : — It has been
estimated that the money paid in the form of sinecure
fellowships or retiring pensions, to young men in
Oxford alone "now amounts to about ^80,000 or
^90,000 a year ; and it has been suggested that this
money be applied to the purpose. These funds
were originally intended for promoting knowledge,
but vested interests prevent their being used for
discovering new truths.

The chief object of such professorships would be the
same as that in the proposed State laboratories, viz. —
to keep a staff of the most competent men wholly en-
gaged upon research in pure science. The professors
of physical and chemical research might be selected in
accordance with the suggestions already made, and be
appointed by the Senate or other governing body,
with the advice of the Council of the Royal Society.
All the precautions which have been already sug-
gested under the head of " State laboratories," would

2O2 Regulation of research at our Universities.

have to be taken in order to exclude unsuitable
persons, and to secure industry in the professors.
The remarks also, already made respecting the limi-
tation of the duties of the professors to research in
pure science, the exclusion of invention, the publi-
cation of results, the class of sciences with which a
commencement might best be made, etc., apply
equally in this case. I do not however mean by these
remarks to suggest the disendowment of research in
the more complex or concrete subjects, in order to
make a commencement writh the simpler sciences.

The existence within the Universities of offices in
which the faculties of scientific men might be de-
veloped to their fullest extent, would induce those
engaged in the work of scientific instruction in those
institutions to devote more time to research, in order
that they might improve their scientific talents, and
in their turn become fitted to occupy such posts.

It has been suggested that discoverers should teach
as well as investigate ; but this would be an imperfect
plan, and would largely convert the position of a pro-
fessor into that of one at an ordinary college. Every
person who has had much experience in experimental
investigation also knows, that to carry it out effectu-
ally, requires the whole of his time and attention. If,
therefore, teaching or lecturing constitutes a part of
the duties, a portion of the professor's time must be
taken from the more important occupation of research,
and the fundamental object of the institution will be
frustrated. Research evolves new knowledge ; teach-

Should discoverers be also teachers ? 203

ing simply distributes it. The labours of a scientific
teacher or lecturer consist esssentially of a continued
series of repetitions of other men's discoveries. For
each single man who can discover, there exist many
who can teach. With teaching in addition to research,
all the usual educational machinery, lecture theatres
and apparatus, diagrams, audiences, pupils, regis-
tration of students, receipt of fees, examinations,
marking of papers, valuing of answers, attending
annual meetings, etc., would be brought into
requisition, and the result would probably be, as it is
at present, the duties of teaching would, in nearly all
cases, swallow up the time, and prevent the freedom
from interruption necessary for successful research
Under present circumstances, it is the testimony of
nearly every teacher and lecturer in science, that he
" has no time for research." If teaching is also carried
on, the Research laboratories will compete with edu-
cational institutions, established and carried on by
private enterprize, and place them at a disadvantage,
and thus discourage voluntary effort in the diffusion
of science ; but by limiting the functions of the pro-
fessors entirely to pure research, there will be no com-
petition with any private interests, because no persons
gain a livelihood entirely by means of such occupation.
That the practice of teaching is however of very
great use in preparing the mind of a scientific man for
research is quite certain, because it compels him to-
study all parts of his subject, and whilst doing so,
many questions for investigation occur to his mind.

2O4 Advantages of research to a teacher.

Many of our most eminent discoverers have also been
teachers. But teaching is not a necessary condition
of success in research, nor even a necessary prepara-
tion for it ; the examples of various able discoverers
prove this. In some cases discoverers have devoted
themselves to teaching, only after having attained high
repute in research ; in others they have not been
teachers at all. Original research itself usually sug-
gests plenty of new subjects of investigation, without
the additional ones suggested by teaching.

In order that self improvement in a man of science
might never stagnate, there should exist a continuous
and complete series of steps of preferment, by which
the merest beginners in scientific knowledge, might be
enabled to attain to the highest scientific position ; and
finally become wholly occupied in that kind of labour
by which their scientific faculties would be developed
to their fullest extent, but this last step is wanting.
By the proposed plan however a student would be-
come a teacher ; the teacher develope into a professor ;
and a professor might employ for a period a portion
of his time in research, and thus become qualified/or
entire devotion to original investigation and discovery.

After a scientific teacher has acquired a thorough
knowledge of his subjects, and a high position in his
professsion, his occupation becomes to him a species
of intellectual routine, in which he is continually going
through the same courses of lectures and examinations
over and over again, and his personal improvement
stagnates. But if there was remuneration for research,

Provincial Colleges of Research. 205

or there existed some post or employment, to which
those who had acquired the ability to investigate
might be appointed, there would be an inducement to-
continued intellectual improvement, and a sphere in
which the most valuable faculties of scientific men?
might be developed for national benefit to their fullest
extent.

^rd. Provincial Colleges of Research. — The success
of this plan would depend essentially upon the diffu-
sion of a knowledge of the importance of scientific re-
search amongst the richer classes. There are at
present a very few wealthy persons in this country who
perceive to some extent the value of such research,
and the dependence of their wealth upon it, who
would be willing to contribute to a fund for the pur-
pose ; and there are many more who would assist
if the importance of the subject was properly
explained to them. The chief argument in favour
of provincial colleges of research is, that it is a
duty of wealthy persons to aid research, because
they have derived, and are continually deriving
great benefits from it, for which they make no
payment. The ways in which some of those benefits
have been derived have been already briefly stated.
As the large manufacturers and capitalists are gen-
erally the persons who derive great pecuniary benefit
from the progress of science, it might be reasonably
urged 'that they should contribute freely towards its
advancement.

Such an institution might be located in each of the

206 A id to Professors of Science in Colleges.

largest centres of industry. The objects of the
institution ; the branches of science to be inves-
tigated in it ; the number of professors, the mode
of selecting them, and of excluding unsuitable
candidates for the office ; the means by which
industry might be secured and jobbery prevented ;
the exclusion of invention, and of teaching and
lecturing ; the publication of results, removal of
professors, etc., have already been treated of under the
head of " State laboratories." The chief difficulties to
be overcome in this, as in all other plans of aiding re-
search, are to find a sufficient number of influential
persons acquainted with the subject to practically
carry out the plan ; to secure investigators of high
ability ; and to prevent the offices being filled by in-
competent persons.

^th. A id to Professors of Science in Colleges. — Another
way by which research might be promoted, would be by
giving assistance in the form of a definite amount of
additional salary, for the purpose of pure research,
to professors and teachers in colleges and insti-
tutions ; the money being supplied by the State
or from the funds of the Institution. In carrying
out this plan, it would be necessary to assist only
those persons who had already published a good
research, and thus proved their ability ; and who
would engage to devote a definite portion of
their time to the labour as a part of their -duty.
The selection of suitable men might be made with
the advice of the Council of the Royal Society.

Advantages of research in Colleges of Science. 207

The additional salary should be entirely in the form
of remuneration for labour, time, and materials, etc.,
expended upon research in pure science, and not in
effecting inventions. The knowledge obtained should
be treated as public property, and be published in the
usual manner, and the investigator should not be per-
mitted to sell or patent it. It would be necessary to
provide that in case the investigator failed to make or
publish a reasonable amount of good research, the ad-
ditional salary should cease. Publication in the jour-
nals of the Royal Society, or in a leading scientific
magazine, might be considered a sufficient proof of the
satisfactory quality of the labour.

It is very desirable that all the higher teachers and
professors of science in our educational institution
should devote a portion of their time to original research.
It would make their lectures more reliable, because re-
search yields experience in the detection of error ;
whilst there is usually only one way of succeeding
in making an experiment, there are always many
ways of failing, and in the directions given in
books, the latter are usually omitted. It would also
induce the students to take a greater interest in the
subject, and feel more respect for the teacher. The
special excellence of the German system of teaching
consists in the union of teaching and original research.
This plan of aiding research would induce some of our
teachers of science who have not yet made researches,
to attempt such labour, it would also develope a supe-
rior class of scientific teachers generally ; and produce
a supply of candidates for professorships of research.

208 Extension of the system of Government Grants.

A great obstacle to the carrying out of this plan lies
in the fact that in consequence of the ignorance of the
value of original research by the founders of such In-
stitutions, no definite provision usually exists in the
Trust deeds to authorise the Trustees to devote any of
the funds to such a purpose.

$th. Extension of the Government Grant System. —
During a number of years the British Government has
entrusted to the Royal Society the annual sum of
;£i,ooo for the purpose of aiding science; and that
sum has been given in varying portions to different
investigators who have applied for grants in aid of
their expenses in making investigations.

Although the total amount to be disbursed annually
was not large, very few persons, qualified to make
good researches, usually applied for its assistance, and
it was difficult to dispose of the whole. The chief
causes of this difficulty were : — a grant from the fund
was an unprofitable gift to accept, because it was only
sufficient to partly pay the expenses out of pocket for
chemicals and apparatus, and allowed nothing for the
skill, time, or labour, nor for payments made to assist-
ants. Further, " By order of the Council, all instru-
ments, apparatus, and drawings, made or obtained by
aid of the Government Grants, shall, after serving the
purpose for which they were procured, and in the
absence of any specific understanding to the contrary,
be delivered into the custody of the Royal Society."

By far the greater part of the expense of an investi-
gation in physics or chemistry is the exceedingly large

Advantages of the system of Government Grants. 209

amount of time it occupies. Many necessary pre-
liminary experiments have to be made, which yield
either negative, unsuccessful, or incomplete results,
and make the undertaking expensive. A good in-
vestigation in chemistry also not unfrequently costs
the investigator a sovereign a day if he is wholly em-
ployed upon it. In some cases, for each ;£ioo received
as a grant, at least a £1,000, was directly and in-
directly expended. Any person therefore who under-
took a research became a loser, and aid from the
Government Grant fund did not entirely cover his
loss. Only scientific men who had other sources of
income were able to avail themselves of the grants.
The existence of the grants also was not widely
known. The advantages of the plan were, it dimin-
ished the loss to the investigator, and the fact
of being allotted a sum from the fund was considered
highly creditable to the recipient.

In consequence largely of the evidence collected
from eminent men of science from all parts of Great
Britain, and the recommendations based upon it, by
the Royal Commission for the Advancement of
Science, the Grant system has been extended ; our
Government recently placed an additional amount
of £4,000 a year, for five years, to be distributed
in sums at the recommendation of the Royal
Society to suitable applicants, and the five years
have now elapsed.

This extension of the Grant system has been an

2io Suggestions respecting Government Grants.

improvement. It has resulted both in a large increase
in the number of applicants and of researches ; and
has shown that there exists in this country a large
amount of scientific ability in need of encouragement.
The amounts granted were increased in magnitude so
as to cover in some cases payments made to assistants
and the entire outlay made for experiments, also a
small payment for a portion of the time occupied in
actual research. The plan of awarding the grants has
been for work proposed by the applicants to be done,
and not for that already performed. How far a
retrospective method, might be worthy of trial, is
difficult to decide. It has been objected to it that
the claims of scientific investigators for researches
already made, would be so great and so con-
vincing that it would be impossible to resist them,
and the funds required to satisfy those claims would
be so large as to render the plan quite impracticable ;
if however the retrospective period was limited to a
short time, a year for example, the difficulty would be
lessened. There would still however remain the
great difficulty of valuing the results. This might
probably be overcome by regulating the money pay-
ment according to the time, labour, pecuniary expen-
diture, and scientific status of the particular inves-
tigator, and leaving genius to be rewarded by the
fame and honour of the results.

No system of aid however can place scientific
investigation in a satisfactory position in this country,
which does not include certain remuneration for time,

Dejects of the present modes of aiding Research. 21 1

money and labour expended ; and no sound argument
can be adduced why investigators should not be
adequately recompenced. The genius alone of a
discoverer should be rewarded by fame, and his time,
labour, and expenditure, in accordance with his
professional reputation, be repaid by money, as
in all other intellectual occupations. The same
amount of time and labour expended in any ordinary
profession, requiring an equal, or even less amount of
preparatory education and experience, and less rare
ability, would yield an income of several thousand
pounds a year. Although the lives of a few eminent
discoverers have proved that it has been possible for
them to do a considerable amount of research under
the conditions which have existed, that is no reason
why they should not be remunerated. Previous suc-
cess in research has been due to the unusually great
perseverance, industry, and self-denial of the men, and
but little to any pecuniary encouragement received.
The fewness of such men, supports this view of the
case. The plan of aiding research by grants which
include no certain payment for time or labour, is
quite incommensurate with the importance of the
subject and entirely unworthy of the reputation of a
great nation.

6tk. Students pursuing Research at the Universities.
In the German Universities each student is required
to make an original research before he can obtain a
degree in Science, and the plan has worked success-
fully ; also in the Victoria University, Manchester,

T T

2 1 2 Obstacles to Research at our old Universities.

several Fellowships have recently been established for
the encouragement of students in original investiga-
tion.

If this plan could be carried out in our old Univer-
sities it would produce most valuable results, because
the governing, wealthy, and influential classes of this
nation are chiefly educated at those institutions, and
they would then acquire habits of more accurate
scientific thought, and some knowledge of the nature
and importance of scientific research, and of the
essential dependence of national welfare upon it.

But a great and probably insuperable obstacle exists
to the carrying out of such a plan, viz., the wealth
possessed by the parents of students. An original re-
search cannot be made without considerable industry,
and the greatest opponent of industry, especially with
young men, is the possession or expectation of wealth.
According to college tutors at our old Universities,
there is no large class of industrious students at those
institutions. The greatest cause of the idleness
of the students is parental neglect and the habits
of wealthy society. Many parents allow their sons
too much money, and over-look too readily their
idleness and frivolity ; the young men also know their
parents are rich, and act accordingly. Many persons
send their sons to those places chiefly to form aristo-
cratic acquaintances, and for other purposes than
those of educational discipline and learning. The
college authorities have also largely acquiesced in the
wishes of the parents and students. And in this way

Depressing effect of undue wealth upon progress. 2 1 3

scientific research has been almost entirely excluded
from our old Universities, If the present tutors and
governing bodies of those Institutions cannot in-
duce students generally to be industrious, by what
means can it be expected that these young men can
be persuaded to exercise the still greater degree of
industry and intelligence requisite to prosecute re-
search, whilst they are decoyed from it by the attrac-
tions of wealth ? In Germany the conditions are
very different, the students in the Universities of that
country have much less money at their disposal.
Nearly the whole of the educational courses also
at the Grammar schools and other educational insti-
tutions in this country, are formed upon the plan of
sending all the superior scholars to our Universities,
and thus the defective state of scientific training at the
Universities operates through our whole scholastic
system, and depresses the entire scientific instruction
of the nation. It is evident that in this way the undue
wealth of this country largely retards national progress.
7///. Local Endowment of Research Funds. In
addition to the foregoing means, local efforts might be
made to encourage research in each great centre of
industry ; through the medium of the local scientific
societies. Nearly as early as the year 1660, Cowley
in a treatise, proposed a Philosophical Society to be
established near London, with liberal salaries to
learned men to make experiments ; but he could not
get the money raised. A plan of this kind is in
operation in Birmingham and carried out by the

214 Promotion of Research by Local Societies.

Council of the Birmingham Philosophical Society in
accordance with the following : —

" SCHEME FOR ESTABLISHING AND ADMINISTERING

A FUND FOR THE
ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH IN BIRMINGHAM."

" The Council are of opinion that this Society
would be omitting a principal means of the advance-
ment of Science — the end for which all such associa-
tions exist — if it neglected the question of the
Endowment of Research. To maintain a successful
investigator in his labours, even though no results of
immediate or obvious utility can be shown to spring
out of them, is of interest to the community at large.
Indeed, it is just because the practical usefulness of
such work is not immediate or obvious that it becomes
necessary to give it special support, for otherwise it
would have its own market value, and endowment
would be superfluous. But the proper and effectual
administration of an Endowment Fund is perceived
to be so beset with difficulty, as often to deter even
those who recognise the principle from advocating it
in practice. Most of the dangers usually foreseen
would, however, as a rule be avoided, simply by the
distribution of such funds from local centres, under
such a scheme as is now proposed. The Council, are
therefore, anxious to establish a Fund, in connection
at once with the Society and the Town, for the direct
Endowment of Scientific Research."*

* See "Nature," vol. XXII, page 203.

L ocal Institutions for Research. 2 1 5

8t/t. Local Laboratories of Research. Another plan
would be for local scientific societies to raise money
by soliciting subscriptions and donations for the sup-
port of local laboratories ; a prospectus of the fol-
lowing kind being issued : —

PROPOSAL TO FOUND A LABORATORY OF PURE
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN .

"As the manufacturers, merchants, capitalists, land-
owners, and the public generally, of this town and
district, have derived and are still deriving great
pecuniary and other benefits from the discovery of
new knowledge by means of pure research in the
sciences of Physics and Chemistry ; and as in conse-
quence of the great neglect of such research in this
country, and the increased cultivation of it in other
lands, our commerce is suffering, and a great many
evils in manufacturing and other operations-, in sani-
tary and many other matters dependant upon physical
and chemical conditions, remain unremedied ; it is
proposed to found a Local Laboratory of original
research in those sciences, with every suitable ap-
pliance in it; and to employ one or more investigators
of repute, with assistants, who shall be wholly engaged
in such labour in their respective sciences."

As it is largely the custom in this country to effect
great objects by means of individual liberality and
corporate enterprise, instead of trusting to State
assistance, it is not improbable that when the
great importance of scientific research and its claims

2 1 6 Promotion of Research a cosmopolitan duty.

to encouragement have become more generally
known, that aid which has hitherto been with-held from
it will be rendered by private generosity ; and local
institutions, wholly for the purpose of original
scientific research will be established and supported
by public-spirited wealthy persons. An institution of
this kind upon a small scale, and called " The Insti-
tute of Scientific Research " has already been estab-
lished in Birmingham, (see Note p. 40). By founding
local institutions of this kind there exist opportunities
for wealthy persons to do great good to mankind,
and acquire renown as philanthropists by the action.

And 9///. In consequence of the great benefit de-
rived from scientific research by the inhabitants of
each locality, it has become a duty of each large
community to promote it, and local Town Councils
might with advantage and perfect justice to the
public, devote a portion of municipal funds to the
purpose of aiding local scientific research. To this
plan it may be objected, that as the results of
research are cosmopolitan, diffusing themselves every-
where, and this diffusion cannot be prevented ; the
benefits arising from research cannot be restricted
even to a large community. In reply to this : — As
knowledge and its advantages are cosmopolitan, the
duty of promoting research must be equally extensive.
There is also a real return received by the public for
expenditure of money in research, in the free liberty
to use all new knowledge developed everywhere by
such labour, and although the money expended by a

Propriety of Municipal aid to Research. 217

community upon particular researches or upon an
individual investigator, does not directly produce an
immediate return ; practically an immediate and
direct benefit is received by that community, because
new scientific knowledge for the use of teachers and
popular lecturers, and new inventions based upon it, of
of local value to that society, continually become
public. Every civilized community has also received
beforehand such benefits to an enormous extent ; and
each investigator may reasonably claim public support
on the ground that he contributes to the general
stock of new knowledge. Some persons however^
who have not fully considered the subject, wish to
receive not only the advantages accruing from the
common stock of knowledge, but also to reserve to
themselves the entire benefit arising from their own
special contributions.

Experience alone will prove which of the foregoing
schemes is the most suitable in this country, or in
particular cases. At present the plan largest in
operation is the system of Government Grants, next in
magnitude are the other funds distributed by the Royal
Society, the British Association, the Chemical Society,
the Royal Institution, the Birmingham Philosophical
Society, and those provided by the munificence of
private individuals. It is greatly to be hoped that
the liberal spirit of private individuals will yet further
remove the great blot which lies upon the reputation
of the wealthy manufacturers, capitalists, and land-
owners, who have derived such great profits from

218 Suggestion to Town Councils to aid Research.

scientific research and have scarcely aided it at all in
return. It is also to be desired that the Corporations
of manufacturing towns will recognise the value of
original scientific enquiry to their fellow townsmen,
and will undertake the responsibility of voting money
from municipal funds to promote it.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

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