A BIOLOGICAL STATION. 



233 



he finds pleasure in the conceit that what zvas the best is and 

 must remain the best. He sees new developments in the 

 market, but his pride and inertia content him with the old. 

 The illusion now takes full possession of him, and every depar- 

 ture from his new ideals seems like abandonment of the higher 

 for the lower standard of excellence. His conceit grows instead 

 of his ideals, and every annual ring added to its thickness 

 renders it the more impervious. 



Can any one say he has never met this illusion t Then a 

 warning may have more pertinency than I should have ventured 

 to claim for it. 



To conclude these introductory remarks, let me again empha- 

 size the all-important qualification of the sound ideal and name 

 the prime condition of its usefulness. The qualification is 

 vitality and the capacity for unlimited growth and development. 

 The condition is absolute freedom for growth in all directions 

 compatible with the symmetrical development of the science 

 as a whole. Please remember that the question of means does 

 not now concern us. We must first get at principles, leaving 

 details of execution to be worked out afterwards in harmony 

 therewith. No one can foresee what means may be found, and 

 it would be a waste of time to try to decide what should be 

 done under this, that, or the other set of conditions. If we 

 know our ideal, we know the direction of effort, and through 

 the effort, the means are eventually found. 



It will help us in the formulation of our ideal if we glance a 

 moment at the ideals that have found most favor. The best 

 models of marine laboratories ten years ago all agreed in mak- 

 ing research the exclusive aim, and in limiting the work to 

 marine forms. In most cases the work was still further limited, 

 embracing only marine zoology, and often only a small portion 

 of that field. The idea of representing all branches of even 

 marine biology was seriously entertained nowhere except at 

 Naples. Remembering that marine laboratories were first 

 introduced only about a quarter of a century ago, we are not 

 surprised at these limitations. Even the narrowest limitations 

 were extensions beyond what had been done before. The 

 Naples station itself began as a zoological station, and still 



