EDITOR'S TABLE. 



6qq 



%aitox r s %kWz. 



WORDS OF A MASTER. 



THE address, which we print else- 

 where, delivered by Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie to the students of Mason 

 College. Birmingham, is one to which 

 we feel it a duty to draw special atten- 

 tion. It would be difficult, we think, 

 to state more lucidly than the eminent 

 author has done the advantages to 

 be derived from a course of scientific 

 study, and the principles which must 

 be kept in view, not only during the 

 period of study, but through life, if a 

 training in science is to have its best 

 results. 



The address begins with a few 

 words of caution as to the drawbacks 

 which are apt to attend on the ex- 

 clusive, or nearly exclusive, pursuit 

 of science. In the reaction which 

 the present age has witnessed against 

 the old literary and linguistic cur- 

 riculum of studies, a tendency is man- 

 ifesting itself to undervalue the older 

 learning. This Sir Archibald con- 

 siders to be a matter for serious re- 

 gret. He recognizes the impossibility 

 of combining any large amount of 

 literary or philological study with 

 the requirements of an extensive sci- 

 entific course; but he advises those 

 who make choice of the latter to 

 " cherish the literary tastes they 

 have acquired, and to devote them- 

 selves sedulously to the further cul-^ 

 tivation of them during such inter- 

 vals of leisure as they may be able 

 to secure." A training in scieuce, he 

 observes, "admirable as it is in many 

 ways, fails to supply those humaniz- 

 ing influences which the older learn- 

 ing can so well impart." Times will 

 therefore come, even to the most en- 

 thusiastic student, when "scientific 

 work, in spite of its absorbing inter- 

 est, grows to be a weariness"; and 



it is then that the value of any liter- 

 ary culture which may have been 

 received at school or college will be 

 appreciated. 



It is a quite true remark that 

 " men who have been too exclusively 

 trained in science, or are too much 

 absorbed in its pursuit, are not al- 

 ways the most agreeable members of 

 society." It is also true that "one 

 result of the comparative neglect of 

 the literary side of education by 

 many men of science is conspicu- 

 ously seen in their literary style," 

 which is not infrequently so " slip- 

 shod, ungrammatical, and clumsy 

 that even the meaning of the authors 

 is left in doubt." This is a great evil 

 under the sun: a man goes through 

 a vast amount of labor to ascertain 

 facts and discover their meaning; 

 and when he is ready to transfer the 

 knowledge that he has gained to 

 other minds he lacks the skill to do 

 it in any satisfactory manner. Yet 

 so far is it from being the case that 

 there is any necessary incompati- 

 bility between scientific and literary 

 cultivation, that several of the most 

 distinguished scientific investigators 

 have ranked among the best writers 

 of the clay. We need only cite such 

 names as Sir John Herschel, Lyell, 

 Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Clifford, 

 and Sir Archibald Geikie himself: to 

 read any of these is a pleasure from 

 a literary no less than from a sci- 

 entific point of view No very satis- 

 factory excuse can therefore be made 

 for those scientific writers who can 

 not compass a style of reasonable 

 perspicuity and elegance. We can 

 only think of them as having fallen 

 victims to the hurtful error that lit- 

 erary style is of no advantage to a 

 scientific man. 



