To encourage research is one of the functions of a university.
Contemporary universities have encouraged research, not only in those
cases where research is necessary, but on all sorts of entirely
unprofitable subjects as well. Scientific research is probably never
completely valueless. However silly and insignificant it may seem,
however mechanical and unintelligent the labours of the researchers,
there is always a chance that the results may be of value to the
investigator of talent. who can use the. facts collected for him by
uninspired but industrious researchers as the basis of some fruitful
generalization. But where research is not original but consists in the
mere rearrangement of existing materials, where its object is not
scientific but literary or historical, then there is a risk of the whole
business becoming merely futile.
The author's assumption about scientific research is that