But why, tell me, should science be ashamed of such a principle? Is science[7] itself anything more than--a business? Is not its task to acquire with the least possible work, in the least possible time, with the least possible thought, the greatest possible part of eternal truth? FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: _Statique expérimentale et théorique des liquids_, 1873. See also _The Science of Mechanics_, p. 384 et seqq., The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1893.] [Footnote 2: Compare Mach, _Ueber die Molecularwirkung der Flüssigkeiten_, Reports of the Vienna Academy, 1862.] [Footnote 3: In almost all branches of physics that are well worked out such maximal and minimal problems play an important part.] [Footnote 4: Compare Mach, _Vorträge über Psychophysik_, Vienna, 1863, page 41; _Compendium der Physik für Mediciner_, Vienna, 1863, page 234; and also _The Science of Mechanics_, Chicago, 1893, pp. 84 and 464.] [Footnote 5: Like reflexions are found in Quételet, _Du système sociale_.] [Footnote 6: For the full development of this idea see the essay "On the Economical Nature of Physical Inquiry," p. 186, and the chapter on "The Economy of Science," in my _Mechanics_ (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1893), p. 481.] [Footnote 7: Science may be regarded as a maximum or minimum problem, exactly as the business of the merchant. In fact, the intellectual activity of natural inquiry is not so greatly different from that exercised in ordinary life as is usually supposed.] THE FIBRES OF CORTI. Whoever has roamed through a beautiful country knows that the tourist's delights increase with his progress. How pretty that wooded dell must look from yonder hill! Whither does that clear brook flow, that hides itself in yonder sedge? If I only knew how the landscape looked behind that mountain! Thus even the child thinks in his first rambles. It is also true of the natural philosopher. The first questions are forced upon the attention of the inquirer by practical considerations; the subsequent ones are not. An irresistible attraction draws him to these; a nobler interest which far transcends the mere needs of life. Let us look at a special case. For a long time the structure of the organ of hearing has actively engaged the attention of anatomists. A considerable number of brilliant discoveries has been brought to light by their labors, and a splendid array of facts and truths established. But with these facts a host of new enigmas has been presented.