The mirror., 1922-12-28
AMERICAN TEMPLES OF SCIENCE
Selected

~ FTER the Civil war and still more after the Cen
~ tennia Exposition, there American gifts to
science so generous that call the world wondered"
If there had been like gifts in the youth of the
public there is for surprise for reproach The
country was thought it was poor to defend itself
from the pirates of the Mediterranean. Its coasts were
menaced by British prize hunting for alleged de-
serters Along the and southern borders every
settler was in reach of the capng knife The financial
weakness of the government in second with
Great Britain manifest that the bodest held his
breath for time" We could the laboratories
construct observatores endow chairs equal those of
the Old World Cities rich and powerful before Columbus
left the of Spain. Instead of blushng for it
should simply the facts had neither the materials
the money
For several decades after the War of 1912 the desire
push further west to convert forests into FARMS to rear
cities in the wilderness to add to the roll of states,
marked that many of enerprising citizens looked
science entirely from the standpoint of What will it
pay?" Dickens rdicued the talk of money and o
which he heard everywhere Emerson greved what
he called maeriasc spirit But the march of cvili-
zation all stocks and the development of industry
is all patentng and financing. The American had
large share of the pride of the Hebrew who marched
with Joshua into Canaan of the Greek who reoiced in
the conquests of Alexander, of the Roman who
proud to be soldier of Julius ,5aesar. Dickens
disposed make the of the unaracve features of
American life but Emerson ought to have the better
side of it. The progress of this young nation
wonderful that hardly credit it. Only seventeen
years elapsed between Fuons steamboat the Hudson
and the Erie Canal only twenty years between the Erie
Canal and the telegraph only twenty-five years between
Morse's message and railroad the continent.
Onward and still onward although the savage urked be-
hind the trees although the marshes reeked with fever
although the mountains lowered sterny and the praires
seemed imtabe onward sought the pioneers. Berkeley
and Burke the possibilities of colonial development,
and the realities would have gaddened their great SOULS
If then the first working observatory of the United
States did until 1S4s the rapid development of
the generation startled native and foreigner Of the
fortunes made in the Civil some were lost in the
stock market and spent in foolish osentatiOn
but the prosperous citizens of that day and later showed
interest in science irrespective of its dividends
The government grew more and more liberal. Scen-
fists of eminence invited colleges. Splendid
gifts made The press, the Photographic establish
ments, the Libraries did their share. Men who had
laughed absorption in trade astonshed the
readiness to aid in whatever expedition science had
in progress.
When John Quincy Adams said we should build
lighthouse of the skies there plenty laugh him.
But there Americans who know that story who have
never read Proctors essay american Aims for British
Science The evaporation felt by Proctor he thought
of the Crown and the admiration he expressed for Coum
ba the gem of the ocean, striking to be
toned.
"Our astronomers says Proctor, "have received in
vitation which is pleasing them men of science
it is painful to them Englishmen. As readers
know, sixtyeght persons had volunteered 60 Spain
and Sicily view the total eclipse of December 22nd:
scientific societies had voted large of money for
the equipment of the two observing partes and
mistaken. The Admiralty discovered that the
nation would undoubtedly dsapprove if found
for of science and their trumpery in any of