444 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



probably for the remainder of his life. He is to a considerable degree 

 thrown out of harmony with his environment, and his attitude toward 

 the world is not very wholesome, because of his mal-adjustment to it. 

 He feels that the world is growing worse because it is now hard for 

 him to make a living. Man tends to realize himself only in so far as 

 the conditions remain the same during the period of his application as 

 they were during his period of preparation and adjustment. 



The same tends to hold true in the intellectual world, and it seems 

 that Osier's point of view is not without substantial support. The 

 world as a whole continually moves forward in its general notions about 

 things. The individual tends to lag. The professional man, even 

 the scholar, in his point of view, in his way of looking at things, tends 

 to become fixed. The lamentable consequence is that, like the type- 

 setter, his services to society ultimately become less and less useful and 

 vital, and he likewise loses his position, and is supplanted by one who 

 has the vital point of view. It is a daily occurrence that a teacher's, 

 a minister's a professional man's, even sometimes a college professor's, 

 services are no more wanted. 



The question comes, can the scholar keep abreast with the times? 

 The most strenuous effort will almost invariably fall short of its at- 

 tempt. Our ideas integrate into a system. An apperceptional some- 

 thing functions in all intellectual life. The ideas in our minds are 

 the standards by which we receive new truths and ideas. We crystallize 

 into our notions about things ; in other words, we form habits of thought 

 as well as of action, and thus become fixed in our theories and attitudes. 

 Considering, therefore, the fact that every subsequent impression upon 

 the mind of a person is viewed in the light of what is already in the 

 mind and fixed, it is not difficult to see why it is almost impossible for 

 that mind to accept an entirely new point of view, no matter how 

 reasonable that point of view may seem to one whose ideas as standards 

 are in consonance with the new view-point. 



Ofttimes it happens, however, that scholars are far ahead of their 

 times. They are dreamers or prophets. They anticipate a more or 

 less distant future, and their thoughts and standards all integrate into 

 a system consistent with their point of view. There are only a few 

 whom they can interest in their lofty conceptions. The man most 

 popular in his time is he who gives expression to what the world gropes 

 after, who lives what they feel, who makes their felt wants real. But 

 the environment, intellectually as well as physically, is cumulative, and 

 soon society will have outgrown him. He becomes obsolete. He has 

 given them the means of stepping beyond him to a higher interest. 

 They are now shouting to another hero who is helping them still another 

 step higher in realization. The world keeps on shouting, but con- 

 tinually to new individuals. 



