These considerations will appear still more forcible if viewed in relation to the interest of the community in scientific culture to which we have already referred. This interest has not been overlooked, and in recent years a great many projects have been discussed for what is termed the "endowment of research"; and already very considerable funds are held by learned societies of the Old World, and smaller amounts by several societies of this country, which have been devoted to this object. But although means are thus furnished to a limited extent to pay the expenses of scientific investigations, and very considerable prizes are offered for the solution of important problems, yet it must be confessed that as yet the results have been meager and have not answered the expectations of the founders of the endowments; and the reason of the small fruitage is not far to seek. A certain order of scientific results can be purchased like other professional work for a price which is to some extent proportionate to the skill required to obtain them. Such, for example, are the daily observations at an astronomical or a meteorological station; such also are chemical analyses and assays of various kinds; such, again, is much of the routine work of a physical laboratory. But the highest order of scientific results, such as leave a permanent impress on the records of science--like Newton's law of gravitation, Young's theory of light, Faraday's theory of electricity, or Bunsen's methods of spectrum analysis--can no more be had to order than could "Paradise Lost" or "In Memoriam" have been purchased by the foot. Moreover, scientific progress follows a necessary law of continuity, and important advances can not be made until the time is ripe. The most that can be done with the direct endowments for research is, to multiply trustworthy observations, and thus prepare the way for discovery; and more than this can not be expected. A more efficient means of cultivating science, and one which is certain, in the long run, to yield a far more abundant and richer harvest, is to secure the conditions which are known to be favorable to scientific discoveries, and to hold in honor such discoveries when made; and I think there will be little difference of opinion among competent scientific authorities that the one essential condition above all others is a certain atmosphere which results from the association of men who are engaged in scientific study.