flecked with barely discernible patches of light; he puts together these trembling nebulæ, as the dismembered parts of a puzzle panorama of the heavens; and out of them all, triumphant over time and space, he constructs a nebular theory of the visible universe. He thus concludes that the various bodies of the solar system "once formed parts of the same undislocated mass; that matter in a nebulous form preceded matter in a dense form; that as the ages rolled away, heat was wasted, condensation followed, planets were detached, and that finally the chief portion of the fiery cloud reached, by self-compression, the magnitude and density of our sun" (Tyndall).

On the one hand, the telescope and spectroscope are aids to the imagination in penetrating the almost inscrutable mystery of the skies; on the other, the microscope enables it to descend somewhat into the no less limitless underworld, and to sink the exploring plummet to depths as far removed from the field of the microscope as the celestial boundaries are beyond the vision attained by the telescope.

How wonderful, also, is the ethereal medium which man's imagination has constructed, the vehicle of the energy wafted to us from sun and stars! To the mental vision this medium fills all space and quivers with radiant energy-that winged Mercury, bearing messages to man from all the worlds on high. Even electrical and magnetic phenomena are utterly inexplicable without it. The imagination of Faraday, of Maxwell, and of Hertz, has woven out of it a texture of lines of electric and magnetic force, which are as real to the electrician as the machines and conductors which he mantles with them. Every conductor conveying a current, every permanent or electromagnet, is surrounded with its system of lines of force in the ether. And when an alternating current traverses a conductor these lines of magnetic force are propagated

outward from it in waves which spread with the velocity of light. In fact, they are identical with light objectively, except in point of wave-length. Thus the theory, imagined by Maxwell with the insight of marvelous genius, and confirmed later by the classical experiments of the lamented Hertz, is now accepted doctrine by physicists the world over. The existence of the ether is now seen to be a necessary consequence of Roemer's discovery in 1676 of the finite speed of light. For the transmission of light is the transmission of energy; and a medium of transmission is a necessary postulate as the repository of this energy during the time of transmission. Newton imagined the light-giving body projecting minute particles, or corpuscles, through space and carrying their energy with them as a bullet carries its energy to the mark. These entering the eye excite vision by impact upon the retina. But Newton's corpuscular theory failed because of its final complexity and the crucial test applied to it by the great experimenter, Foucault.

The undulatory theory, on the other hand, requires a continuous medium, and the energy is handed along from particle to particle as an undulation. In this way energy is conveyed by sound and by waterwaves across the surface of the sea. According to this theory, a luminous body is the center or source of a disturbance in the ether which is propagated in waves through space. They are electromagnetic in origin, travel with the velocity of light, and entering the eye excite the sense of vision. Thus far have we been helped along by the imagination of genius and the contributory aid of experiment. Mean and unfruitful indeed is the science which has not been enriched, extended and vivified by the scientific imagination. Where dull reason halts and the understanding is confounded by appalling obstacles, imagination overleaps them all and the barriers are dissolved

away. The boundaries of scientific inquiry have thus been moved forward and new territory has been added to the cultivated domain.

Again, let me direct your attention to another feature attending the prosecution of scientific research. While it is undoubtedly destructive of credulity, and is perhaps but a weak ally of faith, it is nevertheless a powerful promoter of honesty. The object which the scientific investigator sets before him is to ascertain the truth. He is devoted to it and pursues it with unremitting toil. But this is not all. He not only seeks truth, but he must be true himself. It is difficult to conceive of any circumstances which would induce him to play a dishonest part in scientific research. He has every inducement not only to accuracy but to honesty. He may unwittingly blunder and fall into error, but if he is untrue he is certain to be exposed. No discovery is permitted to go unverified. It must undergo the searching examination of scientific inquiry. The investigator must submit his data and must seek to have his results confirmed. There is, therefore, every inducement for him to be absolutely truthful. This condition imposes upon him also the habit of conservatism and moderation in statement. He is not expected to plead a cause or to make the most of the occasion for himself. In this regard his position is in contrast with those whose profession makes them the allies of faith, but whose moderation is not always known to all men; for their assertions are not brought to the touchstone of revision and justification, and the released word flies over the unguarded wall.

The habit of the scientific investigator is to subject every question to the scrutiny of reason and to weigh probabilities. He obeys the injunction, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." He respects conscience, but has no use for credulity. He exhibits devotion to principle,

but dogmatism, whether in science or religion, has no place in his creed. He looks not only upon the things which are seen, but also upon the things which are unseen. You may suffer me to remind you that the most noted American atheist is not a man of science, while one of the forceful books of modern times, 'The Unseen Universe,' which aims to lay a foundation for belief in a future life without the aid of inspiration, was written by two distinguished physicists. Science examines the foundations of belief. It takes nothing from mere tradition, on authority, nor because it is an inheritance from the past. It admits its own limitations and the somewhat circumscribed boundaries set to the field of its inquiries; but within this province it seeks to ascertain only the truth. It recognizes not only the promise and potency of matter, but the power which makes for righteous

ness.

Turning now to some more practical matters, it is strongly urged that the study of science should begin early, before the taste for such study has become atrophied by too excessive attention to language and mathematics. It is a fact established by observation that if a student gets his first introduction to science only after he is well along in his college course he comes to it with a mental inaptitude that often produces discouragement and precludes the possibility of much satisfaction in its pursuit. The procedure in scientific study, especially when it includes the method of the laboratory, is so radically different from that involved in the study of language that one trained only in the latter finds himself in a foreign field when he enters the former. The study of language, considered merely as the symbolism of thought, or the instrument for its expression, is most valuable and essential. You shall hear no word from me designed to depreciate the value of linguistic study and training. It is rather

to be deprecated that scientific men do not generally pay more attention to the formation of a correct English style, and do not oftener acquire the ability to express the results of their studies in more elegant English diction. On the other hand, an exclusive training in the socalled humanities leaves the student unsymmetrically developed. The elemen

tary study of language is largely a study of the forms and symbols of speech; to the young student, at least, the thought is altogether a secondary consideration. Mathematics furnishes a training in the relations of abstract number, and in the manipulation of symbols invented to facilitate operations expressing the relations between related quantities. It is not only a valuable agency in mental development, but it is a powerful instrument for the investigation of phenomena in those branches of science to which applied mathematics is indispensable. Science has more to do than either language or mathematics with objective phenomena. The student of science soon finds that he has a new set of relationships with which to deal. He may be familiar with mathematical theorems and solutions, but his first difficulty is to see the points of attachment of mathematics to the facts of physical science. He is armed with a weapon of most modern design and exquisite workmanship, and he has possibly obtained some skill in target practice, but he has no eye for game. He may be too short-sighted to see that there is any game even.

Skill in the use of scientific methods of reasoning and acquirement comes only after the mind has been kept for some time in contact with science, so that it has acquired the scientific spirit and aptitude. The preparation for the scientific work of the university should therefore begin in the secondary schools. Continuity in scientific acquisition is as essential as in that of language or mathematics. While six, or

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even eight, years are given to language in the high school, counting the four years with three studies each as twelve, it is thought by some to be an evidence of great magnanimity if two years out of the twelve are given over to the mere elements of physical and biological science. It is obvious to any careful observer that much improvement has been made in the teaching of science in secondary schools within the last few years. More competent teachers are employed, laboratory facilities. have been provided, better manuals have been written, and the tone of the science department has been improved by the fact that preparation in science at last leads to something further in the university. continuity in the pursuit of scientific studies has already furnished qualified teachers for the lower schools. What wonder if the teaching of science in the schools should not have proved as fruitful as was once hoped! Till recently language and mathematics have had the training of the teachers throughout our whole educational history, and if science secured entrance to a secondary school at all it got there in a secondary place. All that science asks is to be placed on equal footing with other lines of study. It demands no preferences and is strenuous that no ultimate bounties shall be extended to other branches. There should be no favored nations in the world of education. It recognizes no excellences in language or literature to justify superior awards at graduation. There are no sacred vessels in education which science may not touch, no shibboleth which she cannot pronounce, no holy of holies which she should be forbidden to enter. The ideal culture course is not all science, not all language, and not all mathematics, but a judicious combination of these and other branches. It would be no less logical for one to make one's course chiefly science than to make it chiefly language; but when the student has

successfully completed his course, making due allowance for personal differences and needs, no reason seems to me valid for not crowning the equivalent work of all with the same degree.

Reference to the other aspect of my subject has, perhaps, been too long delayed. Sci

ence has not only educational value of a high order, but industrial applications as well. Discovery and scientific training precede invention. The quality of mind that discovers the laws of nature is of a higher order than that which makes application of them. The genius of Faraday and Henry, who discovered the laws of magnetic induction, must not be dimmed or diminished by reduction to the level of even the greatest living inventors. The contributions of these men to the well-being, comfort and happiness of mankind cannot be over-estimated. They laid the foundation in magnificent discoveries of those splendid applications which have dazzled the world in recent years. So thoroughly intrenched in theory and practice are Faraday's conceptions at the present day that they enter into every design of motor or dynamo. They have been shot through the entire body of practice and are intertwined with every thread of electrical thought.

On the other hand, one must not fail to note that the wonderful applications of science have reacted in a favorable way upon theory and investigation. They have proved an effective stimulus to research and have furnished a multitude of problems for original investigation. Scientific discovery and inventions involving scientific laws are two handmaids of national improvement. They are larger agencies for the advance of modern civilization than any others. Astronomy has made splendid contributions to navigation since Galileo suffered for teaching that the earth revolves daily on its axis and yearly round the sun. It has also made possible modern chronometry by

The

giving us the accurate unit of time. contributions of modern chemistry are so numerous and so important that it is difficult to particularize. It has taken a useless. refuse of the gas retort and converted it into resplendent dyes that rival the gorgeous colors of the rainbow. It has improved and cheapened the processes of manufacturing iron till the cost of the ore and the fuel control the price of the product; and old establishments, far removed from the cheap supply of either, have had to succumb to the march of events.

Bacteriology, the ally of chemistry, working largely by chemical methods, gives the fairest promise of discovering the cause and the prevention of disease. Its beneficent aim now is to devise methods of securing immunity from the most deadly diseases, whose ravages are greater than those of great civil wars. Important discoveries in this direction are impending, and medicine is fast becoming a science instead of a body of empirical rules.

Bacteriology has already isolated and identified a large number of pathogenic or disease-producing germs and hopes in time to corral them. It has demonstrated that disease is not due simply to the presence of the bacillus, but to the specific poison resulting from its growth. It has added consumption and pneumonia to the list of infectious diseases; and the discovery of the cause is a long stride toward the goal of prevention.

The specific direction in which the large body of scientific discovery is turned to practical account is in the several branches of engineering. The civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineers are the prophets of the new civilization. They have pierced the highest mountains; hung highways over the most dizzy cañons; constructed a rushing steed that feeds on the compressed vegetation of the carboniferous age and wearies not; they have brought the nations