176 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sided specialist. Many a man attempting research has come short of 

 really advancing knowledge on account of his prejudices. Darwin was 

 a typical example of a philosophically whole man; whatever personal 

 opinions he may have had, they were never allowed to prejudice any 

 hypothesis he was examining, nor to interfere with conclusions toward 

 which the observed facts logically led him. 



Faraday was another such man. He wrote the following words 

 early in his scientific career- and his life work was an expression of 

 their truth : 



The philosopher should be a man willing to listen to every suggestion, 

 but determined to judge for himself. He should not be governed by appearances, 

 have no favorite hypothesis, be of no school, and in doctrine have no master. 

 He should not be a respecter of persons, but of things. Truth should be his 

 primary object. If to these qualities he added industry, he may indeed hope 

 to walk within the veil of the temple of nature. 



Again he wrote : 



We may be sure of facts, but our interpretation of facts we should doubt. 

 He is the wisest philosopher who holds his theory with some doubt; who is 

 able to proportion his judgment and confidence to the value of the evidence 

 set before him, taking a fact for a fact and a supposition for a supposition. 

 (Gladstone's, 'Life of Mr. Faraday,' pp. 93 and 94.) 



Sixth, research must be protected from interference. I take this 

 expression from the game of football; the man who runs with the ball 

 requires the protection of all the rest of the team. So research can 

 not be carried on to successful issue, except by a man who is permitted 

 to devote the best that is in him to the problem of research, and to do 

 so he must have the way opened for him. Many may help to give him 

 the opportunity, but the one thing essential is that he be left free and 

 unimpeded to pursue the problem, wherever it leads him. Time and 

 occasion and money must be at his disposal to such extent as his prob- 

 lem demands. 



Research work must be regarded as the very flower of a university 

 system, and should not be lightly valued or carelessly managed. Only 

 men thoroughly fitted by the training of study and the training of 

 investigation, and the training of mental discipline, should be allowed 

 the privilege of entering upon research in our universities; but when- 

 ever the proper man is found, the providing of a way for his pursuit 

 of research work, in the field for which he is best fitted, becomes a con- 

 tribution direct to the progress of science in the world, of which any 

 university may be proud. The university may well scrutinize with con- 

 summate care the qualities demanded for research, provide rigidly for 

 the discrimination of those qualities wherever they are highly developed, 

 and may wisely provide with liberality for the true man of research 

 when he is discovered and is properly trained for his work. But in 



