The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century | Page 5

has done no less for modern physics and chemistry, and for a
great deal of modern biology. And as the captains of industry have, at
last, begun to be aware that the condition of success in that warfare,
under the forms of peace, which is known as industrial competition lies
in the discipline of the troops and the use of arms of precision, just as
much as it does in the warfare which is called war, their demand for
that discipline, which is technical education, is reacting upon science in
a manner which will, assuredly, stimulate its future growth to an
incalculable extent. It has become obvious that the interests of science
and of industry are identical, that science cannot make a step forward
without, sooner or later, opening up new channels for industry, and, on
the other hand, that every advance of industry facilitates those

experimental investigations, upon which the growth of science depends.
We may hope that, at last, the weary misunderstanding between the
practical men who professed to despise science, and the high and dry
philosophers who professed to despise practical results, is at an end.
Nevertheless, that which is true of the infancy of physical science in the
Greek world, that which is true of its adolescence in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, remains true of its riper age in these latter
days of the nineteenth century. The great steps in its progress have been
made, are made, and will be made, by men who seek knowledge simply
because they crave for it. They have their weaknesses, their follies,
their vanities, and their rivalries, like the rest of the world; but whatever
by-ends may mar their dignity and impede their usefulness, this chief
end redeems them.[B] Nothing great in science has ever been done by
men, whatever their powers, in whom the divine afflatus of the
truth-seeker was wanting. Men of moderate capacity have done great
things because it animated them; and men of great natural gifts have
failed, absolutely or relatively, because they lacked this one thing
needful.
[Sidenote: True aim and method of research.]
To anyone who knows the business of investigation practically, Bacon's
notion of establishing a company of investigators to work for 'fruits,' as
if the pursuit of knowledge were a kind of mining operation and only
required well-directed picks and shovels, seems very strange.[C] In
science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human
activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is
only in one or two of them. And, in scientific inquiry, at any rate, it is
to that one or two that we must look for light and guidance. Newton
said that he made his discoveries by 'intending' his mind on the subject;
no doubt truly. But to equal his success one must have the mind which
he 'intended.' Forty lesser men might have intended their minds till they
cracked, without any like result. It would be idle either to affirm or to
deny that the last half-century has produced men of science of the
calibre of Newton. It is sufficient that it can show a few capacities of
the first rank, competent not only to deal profitably with the inheritance

bequeathed by their scientific forefathers, but to pass on to their
successors physical truths of a higher order than any yet reached by the
human race. And if they have succeeded as Newton succeeded, it is
because they have sought truth as he sought it, with no other object
than the finding it.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Progress from 1837 to 1887.]
I am conscious that in undertaking to progress give even the briefest
sketch of the progress of physical science, in all its branches, during the
last half-century, I may be thought to have exhibited more courage than
discretion, and perhaps more presumption than either. So far as
physical science is concerned, the days of Admirable Crichtons have
long been over, and the most indefatigable of hard workers may think
he has done well if he has mastered one of its minor subdivisions.
Nevertheless, it is possible for anyone, who has familiarised himself
with the operations of science in one department, to comprehend the
significance, and even to form a general estimate of the value, of the
achievements of specialists in other departments.
Nor is their any lack either of guidance, or of aids to ignorance. By a
happy chance, the first edition of Whewell's 'History of the Inductive
Sciences' was published in 1837, and it affords a very useful view of
the state of things at the commencement of the Victorian epoch. As to
subsequent events, there are numerous excellent summaries of the
progress of various branches of science, especially up to 1881, which
was the