The Scientific Basis of National Progress, Including that of Morality. Gore George
they the manufacturing skill. At present, however, continental nations are gradually supplanting us in manufactures; and gradually supplying us with the goods which we 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 distribution; – 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 supplemented by conveyance by railways. The diminution of labour which sometimes occurs in consequence of the progress of science is extremely small compared 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 conveying 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 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 scientific society, institution, or investigator, a single thousand pounds for the aid of pure research in experimental physics or chemistry;4 the nearest approach to exceptions are a very few wealthy persons who have devoted themselves personally 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 understood 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 scientific 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 chemistry. In the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the average annual expenses relating to experimental research, including salaries to assistants 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 knowledge, 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 philanthropic 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 surprising that no wealthy philanthropic individual has bequeathed funds for the endowment of an institution for pure research in physics or chemistry.5 In America, the Smithsonian Institution was founded at Washington by benevolent and patriotic persons,6 "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 researches 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 unwilling to encourage good objects, but because scientific 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,7 and it would probably be impossible to find a subject of such great magnitude so little understood. Comparatively 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 condition 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 overlooked. In discovery, man must follow where Nature leads.
Another cause of want of encouragement of research, is the natural selfishness which exists, 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 intrinsic 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 obviously 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 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 improvement 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.8 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,
In the year 1870, a gentleman of the name of Davis bequeathed £2,000 to the Royal Institution, London, to aid original scientific research.
As a notable exception to the above statement: – "Scientific research has now an Institute of its own in Birmingham, without 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 Research.'" See
Professor Bache left 50,000 dollars, and Smithson bequeathed 541,000 dollars to this Institution.
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.
The Victoria University has recently become a partial exception to this statement.