INTRODUCTION. 



BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



BOSTON, Mass., Jan. 2, 1888. 



THE WRITERS PUBLISHING COMPANY : 



DEAR SIRS, Having done me the honor to request 

 that I should send you an introduction to your new 

 edition of the Hand-book of the Agassiz Association, 

 I have written out a few thoughts which I hope will 

 be considered suitable for that purpose. I have also 

 taken the liberty of making an appeal, which you had 

 not requested me to do, but which I think ought to 

 be made, in order to secure the future of the Asso- 

 ciation and the continuance of the good work it has 

 begun. 



If science has any moral strength, it lies in making 

 the fearless pursuit of truth an end in itself, with- 

 out reference to the ordinary limitations of expe- 

 diency. Nevertheless, this higher mode of life, when 

 carried to excess, has certain more or less injurious 

 reactions upon the mind. The scientific recluse shut 

 up in his own thoughts, as in a cell, and magnifying 

 the grandeur and importance of his own work at the 

 expense of that of others not exclusively devoted to 

 research, is more nearly a modern imitator of the 

 monastic original than most persons are apt to suppose. 



Three classes of men have been required for the 

 accomplishment of the greater triumphs of science : 

 the investigators or discoverers of abstract and often 

 apparently useless truths, teachers of all grades, and 

 popularizers. The great man after whom your organ- 



