While giving all due honor to the great inventors, let us remember
that the first place is that of the great investigators, whose
forceful intellects opened the way to secrets previously hidden
from men. Let it be an honor and not a reproach to these men that
they were not actuated by the love of gain, and did not keep
utilitarian ends in view in the pursuit of their researches. If it
seems that in neglecting such ends they were leaving undone the
most important part of their work, let us remember that Nature
turns a forbidding face to those who pay her court with the hope
of gain, and is responsive only to those suitors whose love for
her is pure and undefiled. Not only is the special genius required
in the investigator not that generally best adapted to applying
the discoveries which he makes, but the result of his having
sordid ends in view would be to narrow the field of his efforts,
and exercise a depressing effect upon his activities. The true man
of science has no such expression in his vocabulary as "useful
knowledge." His domain is as wide as nature itself, and he best
fulfils his mission when he leaves to others the task of applying
the knowledge he gives to the world.
We have here the explanation of the well-known fact that the
functions of the investigator of the laws of nature, and of the
inventor who applies these laws to utilitarian purposes, are
rarely united in the same person.
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