Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The direct tendency of the scientific training is to develop as fully
as possible the positive traits which have been mentioned. Each
science is a body of systematic, well-organized knowledge, with clear
fundamental principles and distinct outlines. The study of science
is a continual discouragement of obscurity or vagueness; it is a
discipline in the statement and solution of definite problems, and it
trains one to see things as they are, apart from all irrelevancies. The
technicalities of science, so bewildering to the layman, are merely
aids to exactness, avoidances of circumlocution--in short, they are
practical devices whereby labor is saved. Economy of effort is one of
the features in which the scientific training excels.
The results of such a training vary, of course, with the individual,
and depend upon his personal peculiarities. A broad man is broadened by
it; a narrow man shuts himself up within the limits of a specialty. To
some extent specialization is necessary, but there is a wide difference
between the man who sees only his own province and one who realizes its
relations to other fields. The same distinction is found in commercial
life, and with the same results. The specialist in money, in stocks, in
iron, or in cotton may be just as narrow as the specialist in stars,
or reactions, or insects, and know little or nothing of any subject
outside his own. Neither narrowness nor breadth of view is monopolized
by any vocation. The mere fact that men of science rarely devote their
attention to accumulating wealth does not prove them to be unpractical.
They are not, as a rule, careless or thriftless in money matters;
they are as likely to handle their financial affairs intelligently
as any one else, but their main business lies in other directions.
If seldom a millionaire, the man of science is still more seldom a
bankrupt. In wild speculation the so-called practical man takes the
lead, and anything which bears the trade mark of electricity, from
the electrical refining of sugar to the extraction of gold from sea
water, can secure from otherwise shrewd financiers the support which
a worker in science would contemptuously refuse to give. A few years
ago the would-be rain-makers obtained the money for their experiments
from men of business, and from Congress even, in spite of advice based
upon scientific knowledge, and failure was the inevitable end. In that
borderland between business and research, which is known as applied
science, the scientific student is more practical than the financier.
When both work together, wealth is produced, but the seedtime of
abstract investigation always precedes the harvest. The commercial
value of exact knowledge is often very great, but to the prospective
investor this truth is not always evident.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account