374 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



effort required for each purpose, but by teaching him to be 

 alert in detecting the importance of apparent trifles which 

 others are likely to overlook. Thus, as research is largely 

 concerned with the elucidation of the results of hitherto 

 neglected facts, it is found that for many objects mental 

 dexterity can best be fostered by turning the attention of the 

 abler student from the known to the unknown, from informa- 

 tion to investigation. This can only be done by men who are 

 themselves investigators, and thus the modern view of the 

 professor and student as partners in the search after know- 

 ledge is replacing Adam Smith's conception of the student as 

 a customer who asks from one side of a lecture table to be 

 supplied with so much knowledge of a particular kind, which 

 ought to be duly served out to him by the affable gentleman 

 who stands behind it. 



On all the side issues which are connected with this change 

 of view I have not time to dwell. I can only deal with one 

 result of the modern view of a Professor's duties, and with 

 the difficulties attending the greater rigidity introduced by 

 stricter regulations as to courses of study. 



As to the first, it is a curious commentary on Adam Smith's 

 doctrines that the salaries of Professors of Science are certainly 

 less than they otherwise would be, because the command of a 

 laboratory is a condition favourable to the carrying out of those 

 researches which are to them a source of interest and of repu- 

 tation which they value as highly, or in many cases much more 

 highly, than direct pecuniary reward. 



"Great objects," says our author, "alone and unsupported 

 by the necessity of application, have seldom been sufficient to 

 occasion any considerable exertion. In England, success in 

 the profession of the law leads to some very great objects of 

 ambition : and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, have 

 ever in this country been eminent in that profession." 



The reply to this remark is that very few men enter upon 

 a task, the primary[object of which is to gain a livelihood, unless 

 the necessity of earning a living is imposed upon them. The 

 conduct of other persons' business in the law courts, the detailed 

 supervision of and care for other persons in illness, are tasks 

 which, though often illuminated by the noblest self-devotion, are 

 in general undertaken, not with any active hope of obtaining the 

 highest rewards which the professions of Law or Medicine can 



