EDITORIAL 



305 



'movies' supply what people will 

 pay for. It is no discredit to our democ- 

 racy that these are what they want ; 

 ■on the contrary, it represents a great 

 advance when a hundred million peo- 

 ple care for such things. We may be 

 satisfied if progress is made by educa- 

 tion and an improved environment in 

 a hundred years if a slightly better 

 germ-plasm is established in a thous- 

 and years. 



"There are over a hundred journals 

 and proceedings devoted to the publi- 

 cation of research-work in America not 

 one of which pays its expenses on a 

 regular business basis. Magazines con- 

 nected with applied science and popular 

 mechanics may do so. This represents 

 a step in advance, which we may hope 

 indicates that ultimately there may be 

 a general interest in other and more 

 fundamental departments of science. 



"It would probably be undesirable for 

 scientific journals to be directly subsi- 

 dized or endowed. Indirectly they are 

 now subsidized by the work of contrib- 

 utors and editors supported by en- 

 dowed or tax-supported institutions 

 and by subscriptions from public libra- 

 ries. In so far as they require addition- 

 al support, it can probably best come 

 through an increase in the number of 

 public libraries subscribing for such 

 journals and by an increase of sub- 

 scribers among those who may realize 

 the importance of supporting an insti- 

 tution essential to society and its better- 

 ment." 



the sake of living over any part of the 

 past." 



Mingled with a feeling of pathos and 

 3-et with joy that well-known quotation 

 from Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet, 

 came into my mind : "The moving fin- 

 ger writes, and having writ moves on." 

 The unwritten part of the page offers 

 as much joy as anything in the past 

 or present and, in addition, there are 

 the possibilities and always the pos- 

 sible variations. 



Such a point of view is encouraging 

 to the naturalist. The achievements 

 and the knowledge accumulated in the 

 past are rolling up like a big snowball 

 and offering us untold wealth in our 

 ability to appreciate the things of na- 

 ture. 



To say of a child, "That is the best 

 part of life," is equivalent to saying, 

 "A little development of brain and 

 body is better than much." We have 

 learned a little, and let us go and learn 

 more. 



To the naturalist, in the Indian Sum- 

 mer of his age, "The moving finger 

 writes, and having writ moves on," 

 are delightful words. Mr. Philosopher, 

 would you like to "come up again?". 



"Would You Like to 'Come Up 

 Again?'" 

 A prominent resident of Sound 

 Beach asked me this question as I 

 boarded the trolley car in which he was 

 sitting. A little girl about eight years 

 of age had entered the car just ahead 

 of me, and as I stepped in he asked this 

 astonishing question, "Would you like 

 to be at that age and come up again?" 

 He said that he had made the sugges- 

 tion to many people, but had not yet 

 found one that would like to live over 

 even one day of his past life, and ad- 

 ded, "Life is sweet, but it is chiefly so 

 in anticipation. I believe that none of 

 us. no matter how happy the past has 

 been, would exchange one day of the 

 present nor one day of the future for 



A Study in Psychology. 



Recently in showing the work of the 

 projection microscope to a company of 

 visitors in the W^elcome Reception 

 Room, I thought to make it clear that 

 real specimens are used in the projec- 

 tion microscope. I took up a pocket 

 lens and a slide on which was moimted 

 a dragon fly's mouth, and called a boy 

 of about five years of age to look 

 through the lens and describe the object 

 to the company, making it clear to him 

 that he was to observe the mouth of 

 a dragon fly. The point I wished to 

 make was that what he saw by direct 

 observation the entire company would 

 see later by projection, and he should 

 thus prepare them, excite their curios- 

 ity, and make clear that a projection 

 microscope was used to save time. He 

 seemed much interested in what he 

 saw through the pocket lens held in 

 my hand above the slide. The slide 

 showed a number of formidable look- 

 ing "teeth" in the jaws of the dragon 

 fly. Thinking him properly impressed 

 with the device with which these in- 

 sects eat mosquitoes, I said to him. 



