244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The occupation of a lifetime is not to be chosen by cold reason, but 

 by the warmth of the heart. When friends go and the purse gets lean, 

 a man may be kept warm by the enthusiasm for his work. When we 

 always recur to our work with delight we make the most of our futures. 

 Much of the success of an investigator lies in his choosing rightly, and 

 the test of one's fitness is the durability of one's zeal. 



Many and varied temptations there are to lead one astray from such 

 a choice, the most seductive of which is escape from financial care. All 

 of us can appreciate this, and the more perhaps because the multitude 

 is apt to measure social standing by material wealth. But we will not 

 linger over this time-worn and hoary subject of dispute, beyond noting 

 that such thinkers as Dante and Harvey, who added so marvelously to 

 our understanding of man, were neither rich nor yet in society. What 

 immediately concerns us is that the investigator requires all of his 

 ability to achieve results, and he certainly will have less success if he 

 sacrifice his stronger inclinations for any social or mercenary reason. 

 Let our financial futures take care of themselves, let us guard our 

 talents. There is room at the top; it is only the bottom rungs that 

 seem insecure. 



Most men when they have obtained their doctor's degrees feel sud- 

 denly helpless, thrown out upon a chilling world. As a result most feel 

 they should secure at once some sort of a remunerative position, and they 

 are apt to think the position better the more it pays. This seems to me 

 to be on the whole a pitiable error, and the reason why is very simple. 

 For if } r oung men have decided upon scientific research they surely will 

 require time for their researches. It is rarely the case that they can oc- 

 cupy any school position and still have opportunity for their own work. 

 Therefore the positions that are best for them are ones that make the 

 least demands upon their time, and most of these are found only in 

 universities. Suppose then a man should be given the choice of an 

 instructorship at $1,500, in a high school or small college in which he 

 would have no time for investigation, and of a graduate fellowship of 

 $500, in which he would have every minute for his work, he should 

 choose the latter no matter what worldly sacrifices he must make. For 

 by this choice he would be gaining time, he would have opportunity to 

 make a name for himself, and if he did not lose heart but remained 

 true to himself he would certainly arrive at the proper kind of a posi- 

 tion. If a man become side-tracked into a school teacher's chair, for 

 the poor reason that he gets a living salary quicker, he will never be 

 heard of and never get out of it to realize his ideals. The dollar may 

 seem big, but time is more productive capital than money. 



Yet, at the same time, it should be noted that a certain amount of 

 teaching is good for the investigator. For in the first place a body of 

 students enables him to farm out parts of his problem, and by estab- 

 lishing in this way a special school he is able to accomplish much more 



