680 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not, however, have failed to remark among yonr fellow-students great 

 inequalities in their powers of observation, and great differences in 

 the development of these powers under the very same system of in- 

 struction. And you may have noticed that, speaking generally, those 

 classmates who have shown the best observing faculty have taken 

 foremost places among their fellows. It is not a question of mere 

 brain power. A man may possess a colossal intellect, while his faculty 

 of observation may be of the feeblest kind. One of the greatest 

 mathematicians of this century who, full of honors, recently passed 

 away from us, had so little cognizance of his surroundings that many 

 ludicrous stories are told of his childlike mistakes as to place and 

 time. 



The continued development of the faculty of prompt and ac- 

 curate observation is a task on which you can not bestow too much 

 attention. Your education here must already have taught you its 

 value. In your future career the use you make of this faculty may 

 determine your success or your failure. But not only have your 

 studies in this college trained your observing powers, they have at 

 the same time greatly widened the range of your mental vision by the 

 variety of objects which you have been compelled to look at and 

 examine. The same methods which have been so full of benefit to 

 you here can be continued by you in after life. And be assured that 

 in maintaining them in active use you will take effective means for 

 securing success in the careers you may choose to follow. 



But above and beyond the prospect of any material success there 

 is a higher motive which will doubtless impel you. The education 

 of your observing faculty has been carried on during your introduc- 

 tion to new realms of knowledge. The whole domain of Nature has 

 been spread out before you. You have been taught to observe thou- 

 sands of objects and processes of which, common though they may 

 be, you had previously taken no note. Henceforth, wherever you 

 may go, you can not wander with ignorant or unobservant eyes. 

 Land and sea and sky, bird and beast and flower now awaken in you 

 a new interest, for you have learned lessons from them that have 

 profoundly impressed you, and you have discovered meanings in 

 them of which you had never dreamed. You have been permitted to 

 pass within the veil of Nature, and to perceive some of the inner 

 mechanism of this world. 



Thus, your training in science has not only taught you to use 

 your eyes, but to use them intelligently, and in such a way as to 

 see much more in the world around you than is visible to the unin- 

 structed man. This widened perception might be illustrated from 

 any department of natural science. Let me take, by way of example, 

 the relation of the student of science toward the features and charms 



