INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 185 



The Second, feeling of the tusk, 



Cried, " Ho ! what have we here 

 So very round and smooth and sharp? 



To me 'tis mighty clear 

 This wonder of an Elephant 



Is very like a spear! " 



The third, happening to grasp the " squirming trunk within hia 

 hands/' declared the elephant to be " very like a snake " ; the fourth, 

 feeling " about the knee/' thought the elephant seemed " very like a 

 tree " ; the fifth, " chancing to touch the elephant's ear/' described him 

 as being "very like a fan/' and when within the scope of the sixth 

 came the swinging tail, the fact that the elephant " is very like a rope " 

 was to him proved beyond dispute. 



And so these men of Indoostan 



Disputed loud and long, 

 Each in his own opinion 



Exceeding stiff and strong. 

 Though each was partly in the right, 



And all were in the wrong! 



And now, if you will permit me to slightly alter the poet's last verse, 

 so as to point the moral to our own selves : 



How oft in scientific wars 



We disputants are seen 

 To rail in utter ignorance 



Of what each other mean. 

 And prate about an Elephant 



Not one of us has seen! 



What is Eesearch? 



In this day of encyclopedias mmierous and ponderous, one is often 

 struck with the fact that in spite of the manifest care and conscientious 

 thought bestowed by the responsible editors, the omissions and evidences 

 of discontinuity of treatment, and lack of recognition of the prime pur- 

 poses of the compilation, are as noteworthy as the imposing array of the 

 results of our steadily advancing knowledge is startling. For a philo- 

 sophic treatment — one fully appreciative of that which the student 

 really requires, not only to enlighten him with regard to a particular 

 subject, but also to stimulate him to research where it is most needed — 

 I frequently get more satisfaction out of the older encyclopedias than 

 from our modern ones, even though they can but present the status 

 of the subject up to the time they were written. 



As an illustration, take the word " research," appearing in our topic 

 of this evening, or any of the associated terms — " discovery," " experi- 

 ment," " investigation " and " observation." Turning to the index 

 volumes of the ninth and tenth editions of the " Encyclopedia Britan- 



VOL. LXXIV. — 13. 



