SCIENTIFIC CULTURE. 523 



ward conscientious labor for the advancement of knowledge and the 

 intellectual elevation of mankind. I would rather point to that far 

 greater multitude who worked in faith for the love of knowledge, and 

 who ennobled themselves and ennobled their nation, not because they 

 added to its material prosperity, but because they made themselves 

 and made their fellows more noble men. 



I come back now again to the moral of all this, to urge upon you, 

 as the noblest patriotism and the most enlightened self-interest the 

 duty of striving for yourselves and encouraging in others the highest 

 culture in the studies you have chosen, and this culture with one end 

 in view to advance knowledge. I am far, of course, from advising you 

 to grapple immaturely with unsolved problems, or, when you have 

 gained the knowledge with which you can dare to venture from the 

 beaten track, to undertake work beyond your power. Many a youno- 

 scientific man has suffered the fate of Icarus in attempting to soar too 

 high. Moreover, I am far from expecting that all or many of you will 

 ever have the opportunity of going beyond the well-explored fields of 

 knowledge; but you can all have the aim, and that aim will make your 

 work more worthy and more profitable to yourselves. Every Ameri- 

 can boy cannot be President of the United States, but if, as our Eng- 

 lish cousins allege, he believes that he can be, the very belief makes 

 him an abler man. 



"We have dwelt long enough on these generalities, and it is time to 

 come down to commonplaces, and to inquire what are the essential 

 conditions of this scientific culture which shall fit us to investigate 

 Nature ; and the first thought that occurs to me in this connection 

 may be expi'essed thus : Science presents to us two aspects, which I 

 may call its objective and its subjective aspect. Objectively it is a 

 body of facts, which we have to observe, and subjectively it is a body 

 of truths, conclusions, or inferences, deduced from these facts ; and 

 the two sides of the subject should always be kept in view. I propose 

 next to say a few words in regai'd to each of these two aspects of our 

 study, and in regard to the best means of training our faculties so as to 

 work successfully in each sphere. First, then, success in the observa- 

 tion of phenomena implies three qualities at least, namely, quickness 

 and sharpness of perception, accuracy in details, and truthfulness ; and 

 on its power to cultivate these qualities a large part of the value of sci- 

 ence, as a means of education, depends. To begin with the cultivation 

 of our perceptions. We are all gifted with senses, but how few of us 

 use them to the best advantage ! " We have eyes and see not ; " for, 

 although the light paints the picture on the retina, our dull percep- 

 tions give no attention to the details, and we retain only a confused 

 impression of what has passed before our eyes. " But how," you may 

 ask, " ai'e we to cultivate this sharpness of perception ? " I answer, only 

 by making a conscious efibrt to fix our attention on the objects we 

 study, until the habit becomes a second nature. I have often noticed, 



