82 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



unlettered and slow of speech. Was I? Let me tell you: a literary 

 education is no education. All the classics of the past cannot make 

 men. Experience does, life does. They are rotten with learning and 

 understand nothing. Why do they lie to themselves? How can 

 they keep on living in the shade of knowledge, without com- 

 ing out in the sun? How can they be satisfied with so little — 

 when there is so much to be known, so much to be admired? . . . 

 They love beauty, so they say — but beauty without truth is noth- 

 ing but poison. Why do they not interrogate nature? Must we 

 not first understand the laws of nature, and only then the laws 

 and the conventionalities of men? Should we not give more im- 

 portance to that which is most permanent? The study of nature is 

 the substance of education — the rest is only the ornament. Study 

 it with your brains and with your hands. Do not be afraid to 

 touch her. Those who fear to experiment with their hands will 

 never know anything. We must all be craftsmen of some kind. 

 Honest craftsmanship is the hope of the world. . . ." 



