SCIENCE STUDY AND NATIONAL CHARACTER. 97 



have a rational cause and a reasonable object. They do not forbid 

 feeling, but they require thinking. 



Secondly, they defy prejudice. They call for the open court, 

 the fair trial, the impartial judge. They say " No " to worthless 

 witnesses and to packed juries. 



Thirdly, they demand a sufficient amount of evidence. True 

 science is the enemy of wildcat theories and reckless generaliza- 

 tions. " The United States has always come out on top in every 

 war! " cries one. " There's no danger that we'll ever be whipped." 

 " I don't like foreigners," says another. " I had a Frenchman 

 for a neighbor once, and he was dishonest. I'm in favor of shut- 

 ting out foreigners." Such reasoning as this — and how astound- 

 ingly common it is ! — must be cut clown at the root by the habit of 

 trained induction. 



Fourthly, the love of truth and appeal to reason, which are in 

 the very grain of the scientific mind and heart, laugh at credulity. 

 They do not scoff at authority, or reject it. But they say: " We 

 must know. If we learn from you, we must know that you 

 know. Who are you? How do you know? If you know, you 

 will not offer us absurd contradictions of reason and accepted 

 truth." 



Again, they make their abode with the man who can receive 

 them at his own intellectual fireside. They require that his mind 

 be his own, that his opinions be his own, that his acts be his own, 

 and that he defend his property in them, have pride in them, and 

 stand by them. 



Again, they demand sufficient time for care, for securing the 

 evidence and for weighing it, and for considering its effect. They 

 demand the completed work, and they reject all results which do 

 not come from time employed, but are hasty guesses. 



And they are not tossed about like a wave of the sea. They 

 do command to prove all things, but they also exhort to hold fast 

 that which is good. First, to what is good of our own and in our- 

 selves. It is well enough to throw away our guesses, quickly made 

 and often wrong. But the fruit of honest investigation, the con- 

 clusions of careful reasoning on sufficient information, these are 

 the science student's riches. He may add to them or replace some 

 of them by better, but he will not throw them away at a suggestion, 

 or trade them to the first speculator who offers something else. 

 He will not have a supply of new beliefs for every day, or for every 

 month, or for every year. Second, we should hold fast the proved 

 good which we have received from others. And we should honor 

 and revere those who have opened the way for us to the truth — 

 those who have above other men possessed the power of reason 



