17 



to steal, while the books of to-day will be in the waste basket to-morrow. 

 True, the language used is somewhat different from the above, but the 

 meaning is essentially the same. 



The claim is that so rapid are the advances in science that the text book 

 of yesterday is antiquated, or in their illiterate lingo, "not up to the 

 times," and so the butterfly products sport only their brief day and die. 



Is it a necessity that books shall have this ephemeral existence? 3s 

 this a love that must so soon grow cold ; a youth that without years must 

 be old; a life that almost begins with death ? 



" I paint for immortality " was the inspired utterance of the greatest of 

 artists, and is there to be no second Shakespeare whose writings will be 

 immortal? Is there not an unentered field of research where we may 

 discover the hidden qualities of the few books which endure? 



With the confession of weakness and partial failure comes the question 

 of possible increase of strength and more complete success. If there is a 

 balm in Gilead let us seek for it, and if there is a physician anywhere who 

 can cure let us search for him. 



And for this purpose let us call a congress of all parties interested for 

 mutual counsel, and, if found practicable, for mutual aid. 



If the weakness is real in all departments of thought, and is discovered 

 in all varieties of thought products, let the invitation to this congress of 

 thinkers be general ; let the workmen come from every separate shop to 

 the great council chamber; the representatives of art, literature and 

 science of every kind to the symposium of mind. 



In this assembly let the historian and the physicist sit together ; the 

 biologist and the biographer; the poet and the chemist ; the botanist and 

 the linguist. Let the mathematician take counsel with the song writer, 

 and the astronomer and the wanderer in the shoreless realms of fiction 

 discuss the things common to both. 



Then the new companionship would beget new inspiration ; a better fel- 

 lowship would lead to a broader culture; " know thyself " would yield to the 

 more generous " know each other," and a fuller answer would be given to 

 the greatest question, " how can men best fulfill their allotted destiny? " 



With this liberal view of Intellectual fellowship necessarily would come 

 more liberal methods in the preparatory as well as in the wage earning 

 period of life. 



It is not the purpose of this lecture to enter upon the much discussed 

 and never to be settled questions relating to the studies to be selected and 



