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THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE

BY ABRAHAM FLEXNER

IT not a curious that in a world mental problems. I have no quarrel rsteeped in irrational hatreds which with this tendency. The world in which threaten civilization itself, men and we live is the only world about which our women-old and young-detach them- senses can testify. Unless it is made a selves wholly or partly from the angry better world, a fairer world, millions current of daily life to devote themselves will continue to go to their graves to the cultivation of beauty, to the exten- silent, saddened, and embittered. I sion of knowledge, to the cure of disease, have myself spent many years pleading to the amelioration of suffering, just as that our schools should become more though fanatics were not simultaneously acutely aware of the world in which engaged in spreading , ugliness, and their pupils and students are destined to suffering? The world has always been a pass their lives. Now I sometimes won- sorry and confused sort of place-yet der whether that current has not become poets and artists and scientists have ig- too strong and whether there would be nored the factors that would, if attended sufficient opportunity for a full life if to, paralyze them. From a practical the world were emptied of some of the point of view, intellectual and spiritual useless things that give it spiritual sig- life is, on the surface, a useless form of nificance; in words, whether our activity, in which men indulge because conception of what .is useful may not they procure for themselves greater satis- have become too narrow to be adequate factions than are otherwise obtainable. to the roaming and capricious possibili- In this paper I shall concern myself with ties of the human spirit. the question of the extent to which the We may look at this question from two pursuit of these uselesssatisfactions proves points of view: the scientific and the unexpectedly the source from which un- humanistic or spiritual. Let us take the dreamed-of utility is derived. scientific first. I recall a conversation We hear it said with tiresome iteration which I had some years ago with Mr. that ours is a materialistic age, the main George Eastman on the of use. concern of which should be the wider Mr. Eastman, a wise and gentle far- distribution of material goods and worldly seeing man, gifted with taste in music opportunities. The justified outcry of and art, had been saying to me that he those who through no fault of their own meant to devote his vast fortune to the are deprived of opportunity and a fair promotion of in useful sub- share of worldly goods therefore diverts jects. I ventured to ask him whom he an increasing number of students from regarded as the most useful worker in the studies which their fathers pursued to in the world. He replied in- the equally important and no less urgent stantaneously: "Marconi." I surprised study of social, economic, and govern- him by sayin~, "Whatever pleasure we THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 545 derive from the radio or however wireless and Maxwell were geniuses without and the radio may have added to human of use. Marconi was a clever life, Marconi's share was practically inventor with no thought but use. negligible. " The mention of Hertz's name recalled I shall not forget his astonishment on to Mr. Eastman the Hertzian waves, and I this occasion. He asked me to explain. suggested that he might ask the physicists I replied to him somewhat as follows: of the University of Rochester precisely "Mr. Eastman, Marconi was inevita- what Hertz and Maxwell had done; but ble. The real credit for everything that one thing I said he could be sure of, has been done in the field of wireless namely, that they had done their work belongs, as far as such fundamental credit without thought of use and that through- can be definitely assigned to anyone, to out the whole of science most of Professor Clerk Maxwell, who in 1865 the really great discoveries which had carried out certain abstruse and remote ultimately proved to be beneficial to calculations in the field of magnetism mankind had been made by men and and electricity. Maxwell reproduced women who were driven not by the de- his abstract equations in a treatise pub- sire to be useful but merely the desire to lished in 1873. At the next meeting of satisfy their curiosity. the British Association Professor H.]. S. "Curiosity?" asked Mr. Eastman. Smith of Oxford declared that 'no mathe- "Yes," I replied, "curiosity, which matician can turn over the pages of these mayor may not eventuate in something volumes without realizing that they con- useful, is probably the outstanding char- tain a theory which has already added acteristic of modern thinking. It is not largely to the methods and resources of new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon, pure .' Other discoveries and to Sir Isaac Newton, and it must be supplemented Maxwell's theoretical work absolutely unhampered. Institutions of during the next fifteen years. Finally in should be devoted to the culti- 1887 and 1888 the scientific problem still vation of curiosity and the less they are remaining-the detection and demon- deflected by considerations of immediacy stration of the electromagnetic waves of application, the more likely they are to which are the carriers of wireless signals contribute not only to human welfare -was solved by Heinrich Hertz, a worker but to the equally important satisfaction in Helmholtz's laboratory in Berlin. of intellectual interest which may indeed Neither Maxwell nor Hertz had any con- be said to have become the ruling passion cern about the utility of their work; no of intellectual life in modern times." such thought ever entered their . They had no practical objective. The II inventor in the legal sense was of course Marconi, but what did Marconi invent? What is true of Heinrich Hertz work- Merely the last technical detail, mainly ing quietly and unnoticed in a corner of the now obsolete receiving device called Helmholtz's laboratory in the later years coherer, almost universally discarded." of the nineteenth century may be said of Hertz and Maxwell could invent noth- scientists and mathematicians the world ing, but it was their useless theoretical over for several centuries past. We live work which was seized upon by a clever in a world that would be helpless without technician and which has created new electricity. Called upon to mention a means for , utility, and discovery of the most immediate and far- amusement by which men whose merits reaching practical use we might well agree are relatively slight have obtained fame upon electricity. But who made the and earned millions. Who were the fundamental discoveries out of which the useful men? Not Marconi, but Clerk entire electrical development of more Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. Hertz than one hundred years has come? 546 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

The answer is interesting. Michael phasize the fact that the part played by Faraday's father was a blacksmith; science in making war more destructive Michael himself was apprenticed to a and more horrible was an unconscious bookbinder. In 1812, when he was al- and unintended by-product of scientific ready twenty-one years of age, a friend activity. Lord Rayleigh, president of took him to the Royal Institution where the British Association for the Advance- he heard Sir Humphrey Davy deliver ment of Science, in a recent address four lectures on chemical subjects. He points out in detail how the folly of man, kept notes and sent a copy of them to not the intention of the scientists, is re- Davy. The very next year, 1813, he sponsible for the destructive use of the became an assistant in Davy's laboratory, agents employed in modern warfare. working on chemical problems. Two The innocent study of the chemistry of years later he accompanied Davy on a carbon compounds, which has led to trip to the Continent. In 1825, when infinite beneficial results, showed that the he was thirty-four years of age, he became action of nitric acid on substances like Director of the Laboratory of the Royal benzene, glycerine, cellulose, etc., re- Institution where he spent fifty-four years sulted not only in the beneficent aniline of his life. dye industry but in the creation of nitro- Faraday's interest soon shifted from glycerine, which has uses good and bad. chemistry to electricity and magnetism, Somewhat later Alfred Nobel, turning to to which he devoted the rest of his active the same subject, showed that by mixing life. Important but puzzling work in nitro-glycerine with other substances, this field had been previously accom- solid explosives which could be safely plished by Oersted, Ampere, and Wol- handled could be produced-among laston. Faraday cleared away the diffi- others, dynamite. It is to dynamite that culties which they had left unsolved and we owe our in mining, in the by 1841 had succeeded in the task of in- making of such railroad tunnels as those duction of the electric current. Four which now pierce the Alps and other years later a second and equally brilliant mountain ranges; but of course dynamite epoch in his career opened when he dis- has been abused by politicians and sol- covered the effect of magnetism on polar- diers. Scientists are, however, no more ized light. His earlier discoveries have to blame than they are to blame for an led to the infinite number of practical earthquake or a flood. The same thing applications by means of which electricity can be said of poison gas. Pliny was has lightened the burdens and increased killed by breathing sulphur dioxide in the opportunities of modern life. His the eruption of Vesuvius almost two later discoveries have thus far been less thousand years ago. Chlorine was not prolific of practical results. What dif- isolated by scientists for warlike purposes, ference did this make to Faraday? Not and the same is true of mustard gas. the least. At no period of his unmatched These substances could be limited to career was he interested in utility. He beneficent use, but when the airplane was absorbed in disentangling the riddles was perfected, men whose hearts were of the universe, at first chemical riddles, poisoned and whose brains were addled in later periods, physical riddles. As far perceived that the airplane, an innocent as he cared, the question of utility was invention, the result of long disinterested never raised. Any suspicion of utility and scientific effort, could be made an would have restricted his restless curi- instrument of destruction, of which no osity. In the end, utility resulted, but it one had ever dreamed and at which no was never a criterion to which his cease- one had ever deliberately aimed. less experimentation could be subjected. In the domain of higher mathematics In the atmosphere which envelopes the almost innumerable instances can be world to-day it is perhaps timely to em- cited. For example, the most abstruse THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 547 mathematical work of the eighteenth liquid helium has brought the side-tracked and nineteenth centuries was the "Non- Einstein concept to new usefulness. Most liquids increase in viscosity, become stickier and Euclidian Geometry." Its inventor, flow lesseasily, when they become colder. The Gauss, though recognized by his con- phrase "colder than molasses in January" is the temporaries as a distinguished mathe- layman's concept of viscosity and a correct one. matician, did not dare to publish his Liquid helium, however, is a baffling excep- work on "Non-Euclidian Geometry" for tion. At the temperature known as the "delta" point, only 2.19 degrees above absolute zero, a quarter of a century. As a matter of liquid helium flowsbetter than it does at higher fact, the theory of relativity itself with all temperatures and, as a matter of fact, the liquid its infinite practical bearings would have helium is about as nebulous as a gas. Added been utterly impossible without the work puzzles in its strange behavior include its enormous ability to conduct heat. At the delta which Gauss did at Gottingen, point it is about 500 times as effective in this Again, what is known now as "group respect as copper at room temperature. Liquid theory" was an abstract and inapplicable helium, with these and other anomalies, has mathematical theory. It was developed posed a major mystery for physicists and by men who were curious and whose chemists. Professor London stated that the interpreta- curiosity and puttering led them into tion of the behavior of liquid helium can best be strange paths; but "group theory" is explained by considering it as a Bose-Einstein to-day the basis of the quantum theory of "" gas, by using the mathematics worked spectroscopy, which is in daily use by out in 1924-25, and by taking over also some of the concepts of the electrical conduction of people who have no idea as to how it metals. By simple analogy, the amazing came about. fluidity of liquid helium can be partially ex- The whole calculus of probability was plained by picturing the fluidity as something discovered by mathematicians whose akin to the wandering of electrons in metals to real interest was the rationalization of explain electrical conduction. gambling. It has failed of the practical Let us look in another direction. In purpose at which they aimed, but it has the domain of medicine and public health furnished a scientific basis for all types of the science of bacteriology has played for insurance, and vast stretches of nine- half a century the leading role. What is teenth century physics are based upon it. its story? Following the Franco-Pros- From a recent number of Science I quote sian War of 1870, the German Govern- the following: ment founded the great University of The stature of Professor Albert Einstein's Strasbourg. Its first professor of anat- genius reached new heights when it was dis- omy was Wilhelm von Waldeyer, subse- closed that the learned mathematical physicist developed mathematics fifteen years ago which quently professor of anatomy in Berlin. are now helping to solve the mysteries of the In his Reminiscences he relates that among amazing fluidity of helium near the absolute the students who went with him to Stras- zero of the temperature scale. Before the bourg during his first semester there was symposium on intermolecular action of the a small, inconspicuous, self-contained American Chemical Society Professor F. Lon- don, of the University of Paris, now visiting youngster of seventeen by name Paul professor at Duke University, credited Professor Ehrlich. The usual course in anatomy Einstein with the concept of an "ideal" gas then consisted of dissection and micro- which appeared in papers published in 1924 scopic examination of tissues. Ehrlich and 1925. The Einstein 1925 reports were not about paid little or no attention to dissection, relativity theory, but discussed problems seem- but, as Waldeyer remarks in his Remi- ingly without any practical significance at the mscences: time. They described the degeneracy of an "ideal" gas near the lower limits of the scale of I noticed quite early that Ehrlich would work temperature. Because all gases were known long hours at his desk, completely absorbed in to be condensed to liquids at the temperatures microscopic . Moreover, his desk in question, scientists rather overlooked the gradually became covered with colored spots of Einstein work of fifteen years ago. every description. As I saw him sitting at work However, the recently discovered behavior of one day, I went up to him and asked what he 548 HARPER'S MAGAZINE was doing with all his rainbow array of colors on ether-alcohol, and that he pressed this viscous his table. Thereupon this young student in his solution through capillaries into water which first semester supposedly pursuing the regular served to coagulate the cellulose nitrate fila- course in anatomy looked up at me and blandly ment. After the coagulation, this filament remarked, "Ich probiere:" This might be freely entered the air and was wound up on bobbins. translated, "I am trying" or "I amjustfooling." One day Chardonnet inspected his French fac- I replied to him, "Very well. Go on with your tory at Besan••on. By an accident the water fooling." Soon I saw that without any teach- which should coagulate the cellulose nitrate ing or direction whatsoever on my part I pos- filament was stopped. The workmen found sessed in Ehrlich a student of unusual quality. that the spinning operation went much better without water than with water. This was the Waldeyer wisely left him alone. Ehr- birthday of the very important process of dry lich made his way precariously through spinning, which is actually carried out on the the medical and ultimately greatest scale. procured his degree mainly because it III was obvious to his teachers that he had no intention of ever putting his medical I am not for a moment suggesting that degree to practical use. He went subse- everything that goes on in laboratories quently to Breslau where he worked will ultimately turn to some unexpected under Professor Cohnheim, the teacher practical use or that an ultimate prac- of our own Dr. Welch, founder and tical use is its actual justification. Much maker of the Johns Hopkins Medical more am I pleading for the abolition of School. I do not suppose that the idea the word "use," and for the freeing of the of use ever crossed Ehrlich's . He human spirit. To be sure, we shall thus was interested. He was curious; he kept free some harmless cranks. To be sure, on fooling. Of course his fooling was we shall thus waste some precious dol- guided by a deep instinct, but it was a lars. But what is infinitely more impor- purely scientific, not an utilitarianmotiva- tant is that we shall be striking the tion. What resulted? Koch and his shackles off the human mind and setting associates established a new science, the it free for the adventures which in our science of bacteriology. Ehrlich's ex- own day have, on the one hand, taken periments were now applied by a fellow Hale and Rutherford and Einstein and student, Weigert, to staining bacteria and their peers millions upon millions of thereby assisting in their differentiation. miles into the uttermost realms of Ehrlich himself developed the staining and, on the other, loosed the boundless of the blood film with the dyes on which energy imprisoned in the atom. What our modern knowledge of the morphol- Rutherford and others like Bohr and ogy of the blood corpuscles, red and Millikan have done out of sheer curiosity white, is based. Not a day passes but in the effort to understand the construc- that in thousands of hospitals the world tion of the atom has released forces which over Ehrlich's technic is employed in the may transform human life; but this examination of the blood. Thus the ultimate and unforeseen and unpre- apparently aimless fooling in Waldeyer's dictable practical result is not offered as a dissecting room in Strasbourg has become justification for Rutherford or Einstein or a main factor in the daily practice of Millikan or Bohr or any of their peers. medicine. Let them alone. No educational ad- I shall give one example from industry, ministrator can possibly direct the chan- one selected at random; for there are nels in which these or other men shall scores besides. Professor Berl, of the work. The waste, I admit again, looks Carnegie Institute of (Pitts- prodigious. It is not really so. All the burgh) writes as follows: waste that could be summed up in de- veloping the science of bacteriology is as The founder of the modem rayon industry was the French Count Chardonnet. It is nothing compared to the advantages known that he used a solution of nitro cotton in which have accrued from the discoveries THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 549

of Pasteur, Koch, Ehrlich, Theobald same category: both were made by thor- Smith, and scores of others-advantages oughly scientific men, who realized that that could never have accrued if the idea much "useless" knowledge had been of possible use had permeated their piled up by men unconcerned with its . minds. These great artists-for such practical bearings, but that the time was are scientists and bacteriologists-dis- now ripe to raise practical questions in seminated the spirit which prevailed in a scientific manner. laboratories in which they were simply Thus it becomes obvious that one must following the line of their own natural be wary in attributing scientific discovery curiosity. wholly to anyone person. Almost every I am not criticising institutions like discovery has a long and precarious his- schoolsof engineering or law in which the tory. Someone finds a bit here, another usefulness motive necessarily predomi- a bit there. A third step succeeds later nates. Not infrequently the tables are and thus onward till a genius pieces the turned, and practical difficulties en- bits together and makes the decisive con- countered in industry or in laboratories tribution. Science, like the Mississippi, stimulate theoretical which may begins in a tiny rivulet in the distant or may not solve the problems by which forest. Gradually other streams swell they were suggested, but may also open its volume. And the roaring river that up new vistas, uselessat the moment, but bursts the dikes is formed from countless pregnant with future achievements, prac- sources. tical and theoretical. I cannot deal with this aspect ex- With the rapid accumulation of "use- haustively, but I may in passing say this: less" or theoretic knowledge a situation over a period of one or two hundred has been created in which it has become years the contributions of professional increasingly possible to attack practical schools to their respective activities will problems in a scientific spirit. Not only probably be found to lie, not so much in inventors, but "pure" scientists have in- the of men who may to-morrow dulged in this sport. I have mentioned become practical engineers or practical Marconi, an inventor, who, while a bene- lawyers or practical doctors, but rather factor to the human race, as a matter of in the fact that even in the pursuit of fact merely "picked other men's brains." strictly practical aims an enormous Edison belongs to the same category. amount of apparently useless activity Pasteur was different. He was a great goes on. Out of this useless activity scientist; but he was not averse to at- there come discoveries which may well tacking practical problems-such as the prove of infinitely more importance to condition of French grapevines or the the human mind and to the human spirit problems of beer-brewing-and not only than the accomplishment of the useful solving the immediate difficulty, but also ends for which the schools were founded. wresting from the practical problem some The considerations upon which I have far-reaching theoretic conclusion, "use- touched emphasize-if emphasis were less" at the moment, but likely in some needed-the overwhelming importance unforeseen manner to be "useful" later. of spiritual and intellectual freedom. I Ehrlich, fundamentally speculative in have spoken of experimental science; I his curiosity, turned fiercely upon the have spoken of mathematics; but what I problem of syphilis and doggedly pur- say is equally true of music and art and of sued it until a solution of immediate every other expression of the untram- practical use-the discovery of salvarsan meled human spirit. The mere fact that -was found. The discoveries of insulin they bring satisfaction to an individual by Banting for use in diabetes and of soul bent upon its own purification and liver extract by Minot and Whipple for elevation is all the justification that they use in pernicious anemia belong in the need. And in justifying these without 550 HARPER'S MAGAZINE any reference whatsoever, implied or throughout the range of human dissimi- actual, to usefulness we justify colleges, larities. In the face of the history of the universities, and institutes of . human race what can be more silly or An institution which sets free successive ridiculous than likes or dislikes founded generations of human souls is amply upon race or ? Does humanity justified whether or not this graduate or want symphonies and paintings and pro- that makes a so-called useful contribu- found scientific , or does it want tion to human knowledge. A poem, a Christian symphonies, Christian paint- symphony, a painting, a mathematical ings, Christian science, or Jewish sym- truth, a new scientific fact, all bear in phonies, Jewish paintings, Jewish science, themselves all the justification that uni- or Mohammedan or Egyptian or J apa- versities, colleges, and institutes of re- nese or Chinese or American or German search need or require. or Russian or Communist or Conserva- The subject which I am discussing has tive contributions to and expressions of at this moment a peculiar poignancy. the infinite richness of the human soul? In certain large areas-Germany and Italy especially-the effort is now being IV made to clamp down the freedom of the human spirit. Universities have been Among the most striking and imme- so reorganized that they have become diate consequences of foreign intolerance tools of those who believe in a special I may, I think, fairly cite the rapid devel- political, economic, or racial creed. opment of the Institute for Advanced Now and then a thoughtless individual Study, established by Mr. Louis Bam- in one of the few democracies left in this berger and his sister, Mrs. Felix Fuld, at world will even question the funda- Princeton, New Jersey. The founding of mental importance of absolutely un- the Institute was suggested in 1930. It trammeled academic freedom. The real was located at Princeton partly because enemy of the human race is not the fear- of the founders' attachment to the State less and irresponsible thinker, be he of New Jersey, but, in so far as my judg- right or wrong. The real enemy is the ment was concerned, because Princeton man who tries to mold the human spirit had a small graduate school of high so that it will not dare to spread its wings, quality with which the most intimate co- as its wings were once spread in Italy operation was feasible. To Princeton and Germany, as well as in Great Britain University the Institute owes a debt that and the United States. can never be fully appreciated. The This is not a new idea. It was the work of the Institute with a considerable idea which animated von Humboldt portion of its personnel began in 1933. when, in the hour of Germany's con- On its faculty are eminent American quest by Napoleon, he conceived and scholars-Veblen, Alexander, and Morse, founded the University of Berlin. It is among the mathematicians; Meritt, Lowe, the idea which animated President Gil- and Miss Goldman among the human- man in the founding of the Johns Hop- ists; Stewart, Riefl.er,Warren, Earle, and kins University, after which every uni- Mitrany among the publicists and econo- versity in this country has sought in mists. And to these should be added greater or less degree to remake itself. scholars and scientists of equal caliber It is the idea to which every individual already assembled in Princeton Univer- who values his immortal soul will be true sity, Princeton's library, and its labora- whatever the personal consequences to tories. But the Institute for Advanced himself. Justification of spiritual free- Study is indebted to Hitler for Einstein, dom goes, however, much farther than Weyl, and von Neumann in mathe- originality whether in the realm ofscience matics; for Herzfeld and Panofsky in the or , for it implies tolerance field of humanistic studies, and for a host THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE 551 of younger men who during the past six I replied: "You have .no duties-only years have come under the influence of opportunities. " this distinguished group and are already An able young mathematician, having adding to the strength of American spent a year at Princeton, came to bid me scholarship in every section of the land. good-by. As he was about to leave, he The Institute is, from the standpoint remarked: of organization, the simplest and least "Perhaps you would like to know what formal thing imaginable. It consists of this year has meant to me." three schools-a School of Mathematics, "Yes," I answered. a School of Humanistic Studies, a School "Mathematics," he rejoined, "is de- of Economics and Politics. Each school veloping rapidly; the current literature is is made up of a permanent group of pro- extensive. It is now over ten years since fessors and an annually changing group I took my Ph.D. degree. For a while I of members. Each school manages its could keep up with my subject; but lat- own affairs as it pleases; within each terly that has become increasingly diffi- group each individual disposes of his cult and uncertain. Now, after a year time and energy as he pleases. The here, the blinds are raised; the room is members who already have come from light; the windows are open. I have in twenty-two foreign countries and thirty- my head two papers that I shall shortly nine institutions of higher learning in the write." United States are admitted, if deemed "How long will this last?" I asked. worthy, by the several groups. They enjoy "Five years, perhaps ten." precisely the same freedom as the pro- "Then what?" fessors. They may work with this or "I shall come back." that professor, as they severally arrange; A third example is of recent occur- they may work alone, consulting from rence. A professor in a large Western time to time anyone likely to be helpful. university arrived in Princeton at the end No routine is followed; no lines are drawn of last December. He had in mind to between professors, members, or visitors. resume some work with Professor Morey Princeton students and professors and In- (at. Princeton University). But Morey stitute members and professors mingle so suggested that he might find it worth freely as to be indistinguishable. Learn- while to see Panofsky and Swarzenski ing as such is cultivated. The results to (at the Institute). Now he is busy with the individual and to society are left to all three. take care of themselves. No faculty "I shall stay," he added, "until next meetings are held; no committees exist. October." Thus men with ideas enjoy conditions "You will find it hot in midsummer," favorable to reflection and to conference. I said. A mathematician may cultivate mathe- "I shall be too busy and too happy to matics without distraction; so may a notice it." humanist in his field, an economist or a Thus freedom brings not stagnation, student of politics in his. Administra- but rather the danger of overwork. The tion has been minimized in extent and wife of an English member recently importance. Men without ideas, with- asked: out power of concentration on ideas, "Does everyone work until two o'clock would not be at home in the Institute. in the morning?" I can perhaps make this point clearer The Institute has had thus far no by citing briefly a few illustrations. A building. At this moment the mathe- stipend was awarded to enable a Harvard maticians are guests of the Princeton professor to come to Princeton: he wrote mathematicians in Fine Hall; some of the asking, humanists are guests of the Princeton "What are my duties?" humanists in McCormick Hall; others 552 HARPER'S MAGAZINE work in rooms scattered through the who from time to time can be lured to town. The economists now occupy a Princeton from distant places. Among suite at The Princeton Inn. My own these Niels Bohr has come from Copen- quarters are located in an office building hagen, von Laue from Berlin, Levi on Nassau Street, where I work among Civita from Rome, Andre Weil from shopkeepers, dentists, lawyers, chiro- Strasbourg, Dirac and G. H. Hardy from praetors, and groups of Princeton schol- Cambridge, Pauli from Zurich, Lemaitre ars conducting a local government survey from Louvain, Wade-Gery from Oxford, and a study of population. Bricks and and Americans from Harvard, Yale, mortar are thus quite inessential, as Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Chi- President Gilman proved in Baltimore cago, California, and other centers of sixty-odd years ago. Nevertheless, we light and learning. miss informal contact with one another We make ourselves no promises, but and are about to remedy this defect by we cherish the hope that the unobstructed the erection of a building provided by the pursuit of useless knowledge will prove founders, to be called Fuld Hall. But to have consequences in the future as in formality shall go no farther. The In- the past. Not for a moment, however, stitute must remain small; and it will do we defend the Institute on that hold fast to the conviction that The In- ground. It exists as a paradise for stitute Group desires leisure, security, free- scholars who, like poets and musicians, dom from organization and routine, and, have won the right to do as they please finally, informal contacts with the schol- and who accomplish most when enabled ars of Princeton University and others to do so.