212 Naturalist at Large 



ing statement, Shaler looked at me sharply. I said, "You 

 win. Professor. You have certainly made this as vivid as it 

 could conceivably be" — which certainly was true. 



I had a letter not long ago from an old friend who knew 

 that I was writing some of my recollections. He said, "I 

 think that a chapter would not be amiss laying stress on 

 the importance of scientific education." 



Well, that's just what I'm not going to do. If there is 

 anything that is being overstressed at the present time it is 

 the importance of scientific education. I should much 

 rather advise every boy to prepare himself with all the 

 Latin and Greek which he can pack in, round this off with 

 good English reading and a modern language or two, and he 

 will have the firm basis for any education. 



I think the scientist is born, not made; I know the 

 mathematician is, and the physicist and the chemist as well. 

 These sciences are so inherently unattractive in themselves 

 and involve so much drudgery that no one ever tackles 

 them seriously who is not born with an innate urge to study 

 them. 



I entered Harvard College, of course, under the old 

 plan with lots of separate examinations during several 

 consecutive days. I am happy to say that I passed well in 

 Latin, Greek, and German, though I failed utterly in 

 physics — a condition which I should still be trying to 

 work off if it had not been for the sympathetic understand- 

 ing of Professor Wallace Sabine. I remarked once to 

 Mr. Lowell that I regretted never having studied history 

 or government while I was an undergraduate. He replied 

 that he could not see why I should feel that way about 



