2 5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



We are least objective about ourselves and that is why we can never 

 decide what is our own merit and achievement. For while the ambi- 

 tion to excel is both justifiable and desirable, the true mirror of success 

 must be the eyes of others. Geniuses are really exceeding rare, yet 

 every man is inclined at some period or other of his existence to think 

 himself one, and a fool continues to think so. On the whole, we do 

 not deserve more praise than we get, the world's estimate being reason- 

 ably fair; and in fact it is incorrect to talk of deserts since each man 

 carves for himself his slice out of the cake of his own baking. Perhaps 

 the happiest stand we can take is to lose consciousness of self, to think 

 of results but not of our part in them, to come to comprehend that our 

 subject and the sunlit world outside of us is much more engrossing 

 than ourselves. From the philosophical side this attitude may be in- 

 correct. But a new philosophy is gradually forging ahead, that men 

 do not contain the whole universe in their minds, that phenomena are 

 not wholly subjective, but that nature is one great unit of which we are 

 only inconspicuous morsels. This is certainly the philosophy of biology. 

 It places us in a truer perspective, and aids us to be more objective 

 and therefore happier. Fortune is a fickle goddess who keeps beyond 

 those who seek her, to touch those who made their work their grail. 

 Thus what we accomplish, and how we have done it, is a matter to be 

 decided by other men and usually by other men of a later generation. 

 When we try to boost our own reputations they will surely receive a 

 great fall. Therefore let us try to forget ourselves and not be troubled 

 about our scientific levels. This will also save that waste of time and 

 good paper given to polemics. When some one overlooks our writings 

 or misrepresents them, we are apt to feel we should go him one better, 

 which may force us into such extremes that we think we can not in 

 honor back out. A published polemic is noisome, an airing of one's 

 dirty linen, and springs from a condition of megalocephaly. Our 

 work is with us, our repute with others. By being true to our work we 

 may attain a dignity never to be reached by self pushing. Science is 

 not a business market. 



In any scientific inquiry he rightly receives the most credit who 

 presents a definite and positive solution. Such was the case with 

 Pasteur, in many ways the master mind of the nineteenth century ; what 

 he undertook he definitely settled. Most men attain to only conjec- 

 tures, but we should seek indisputable decisions. And a good method 

 is that of Darwin, to formulate a working hypothesis and then try 

 honestly to disprove it. Darwin gave as full and fair hearing to the 

 objections made against the theory of natural selection as to the evi- 

 dence for it. We may approximate this by using every check and 

 control. For we do not want the elusive possible or probable, rather the 

 decisive actual. 



