2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vate flowers, keep a stud and kennel, bury himself in Greek and Latin 

 literature, collect pictures, minerals, do anything which will really in- 

 terest him and keep him out of the way of railroad men and railroad- 

 ing, and do it with his might, with enthusiasm, even to fatigue, and 

 do it for at least four years, and by that time his cerebellum will be 

 all right again. 



Kow, what the unintermitting responsibilities of the railroad offi- 

 cial do for the destruction of the constitution of his cerebellum, just 

 that the overstrained exercise of the creative imagination does for the 

 demoralization of the brain of the man of science, especially if it be 

 as it commonly is, accompanied by business anxiety. And his only 

 way of escape from a predestined break-down is through the monoto- 

 nous but interesting occupation of his perceptive faculties in the field 

 and at his office-table. In both he will enjoy that solitude which re- 

 sembles sleep in being a medicine for the weary brain. But it is a 

 solitude peopled with unexceptionable friends — in which Care sleeps 

 and Pleasure wakes — a solitude in which the soul multiplies itself by 

 alliance with all the possibilities of number and all the actualities of 

 form ; a solitude from which a man returns to the society of his fel- 

 low-men sainted by the blessing of Nature and equal to the duty of 

 existence. 



In conclusion, I must express the wish that this meeting of our as- 

 sociation may be as delightful and as useful as any that it has ever 

 held. Those who remember how hard we used to work at them, what 

 a harvest of mutual confidences we used to gather at them, and what 

 a glow of fresh enthusiasm we carried away with us from them, will 

 know what such a wish implies. Those who come fresh to this meet- 

 ing will find themselves made at home in half a dozen worlds of sci- 

 ence at once. That is the particular character and special charm of 

 this association, wherein it differs from all local societies, and from all 

 conventions of workers in special branches of science and art. And, 

 as each meeting furnishes a panoramic view of the present state of 

 human knowledge as a whole, so, at each meeting, the old and the 

 young in science are mingled in such friendly and confidential inter- 

 course that the prospect extends both backward to the beginnings of 

 inquiry and forward to its possible achievements. All good tradition 

 is precious ; and so is well-trained current inquiry, and so is sound 

 prophetic calculation. At such a meeting as this, we enjoy the rare 

 privilege of assisting at all three ; and, when we scatter to our homes, 

 we can hardly fail to take with us something effectual for lightening 

 and sweetening another year of work. 



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