44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The whole point is to try to live up to this record of honor, if pos- 

 sible to surpass it. That means to recognize capable men, to keep them 

 by freeing their time as much as possible for their researches, and to 

 call in capable outsiders. This is the principle of President Gilman, of 

 Johns Hopkins University, " to discover and develop such men as have 

 unusual ability." Each particular collection should be considered the 

 basis of work for a particular gifted man, and not be its tender. 

 Young naturalists starting out should be helped with fellowships and 

 advice, substantially encouraged, not treated as preparators. Museums, 

 you surely must agree, should make places for able men, just as uni- 

 versities are doing, recognizing it to be a part of their duty to help the 

 subject by helping the men. It will be costly to do this, but not if a por- 

 tion of the great funds given to getting collections be given to getting 

 men. When this is done museums in general will be great teaching 

 institutions, and cease to be cold storage centers. It may be questioned 

 whether it is wise policy to say one must get buildings and collections 

 first, then we can think of men. Would it not be wiser to attempt to 

 add men and equipment simultaneously so that the new equipment may 

 be used to best advantage ? The cart must not be put before the horse, 

 nor the fire before the food. 



For the very reason that the American spirit is so eminently utili- 

 tarian and commercial, so highly uncivilized, the learned institutions 

 should do all in their power to help those who are working for science. 

 If they do not offer this help, who will? All institutions should com- 

 bine in this endeavor to make it possible for inquiry after knowledge 

 to increase. They should combine in every possible way to aid the man 

 of original ideas, for he alone is the one who advances knowledge; he is 

 the yeast in the bread. One of the most pitiful chances we can experi- 

 ence is to see a man full of hunger for a scientific career, driven to an 

 uncongenial commercial calling for the lack of opportunity and timely 

 aid ; a naturalist shudders at the thought. Such cases are frequent, and 

 human progress is by so much the loser. Is it not a duty of society to 

 see that men do the work for which they are naturally fitted? Yet 

 when we examine the matter seriously, we may well doubt whether our 

 learned institutions fully recognize this need, and whether they are 

 doing much to realize it. It is, nevertheless, probably the greatest good 

 that they can carry out. 



