3o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



make from nature a faithful transcript. It has been said that all 

 advance in knowledge is really quantitative. We must come down to 

 micro-measurements if we are to see more deeply than others have 

 seen, if we are to add to the store of human knowledge. 



On the great chart made by the descriptive naturalist the experi- 

 menters locate their work. As well try to study geography without 

 maps as to work at the great problems of geographic distribution, 

 without correct faunal lists of species. To study wisely the origin of 

 species, the evolution of forms without knowing species, many species, 

 and knowing them as species, is impossible, as many naturalists have 

 clearly shown by the method of awful example. To fill out the great 

 chart of the descrij)tive chemists, experiments in chemistry are carried 

 on, and in some degree the same condition holds for physics, astronomy 

 and the other sciences. The word science has been defined as knowl- 

 edge set in order. A large adjunct of research, even if it be not part 

 of research itself, is the work of setting knowledge in order. Very 

 often the man who brings clearness out of confusion has contributed 

 more to science than the discoverer of the facts with which he deals. 

 It takes a high order of mind to sift the evidence, to brush aside the 

 cobwebs, to bring forth the truth. To do this well, one should have 

 large experience with creative work. It was not the least of Darwin's 

 merits that he was able to deal with the records of thousands of men, to 

 bring out clearly what these records showed, though not one of the 

 actual discoverers even dimly suspected the meaning of their work. 

 At the same time Darwin was not once deceived by the errors of other 

 men. Each record he accepted from some one else remains unim- 

 peached to this day. To set knowledge in order requires a master 

 in the value of evidence, and for this reason the authors of index, 

 record, anzeiger and bibliography should be held in esteem in science. 

 To do this work one must know how to do it, and to know how is to 

 have had already a large experience in the kind of work which the 

 index or bibliography is designed to help. 



Setting in order the results of research may not demand as high 

 an order of genius as is needed to push forward the line of advance, 

 yet most great investigators have found relating their own work to 

 the work of others a welcome as well as a necessary task. It is the 

 duty of every investigator to enable his successors to start farther 

 along than he was able to do. To enter into the work of others im- 

 plies that our predecessors have smoothed the path and cleared the 

 way to further advances. Whence the experimenter should not look 

 down on the bibliographer or even the compiler, providing that these 

 do their work with a master's mind and conscience. Good work in 

 the poorest fields is better than bad work in the richest. The progress 

 of science depends not so much on the field actually worked, not even 

 on the method chosen, but rather on the brains, conscience and courage 

 a man puts into his work. 



