2 THE CONDUCT OF 



truth in the old saying, "In at one ear and out at the other." 

 How many of such men there are in the scientific world ! Not that 

 they are destitute of interest in scientific pursuits, but, having 

 alone obtained their knowledge of recent developments of research 

 from summarised newspaper and magazine reports, they unfortu- 

 nately imagine that it is sufficient for them to follow this method 

 of acquisition to become supplied with an adequate basis for 

 further practical work. It is almost unnecessary to say that self- 

 deception of that kind will but prove a card house whose 

 weakness is the measure of its strength. And yet it suggests a 

 question which may lead to an interesting inquiry, viz., whether 

 those whose natural inclination is towards scientific studies are not 

 often contented with being parasitic ; whereas, real love for science 

 may not unfrequently be found where it is least suspected. 



I remember some time ago reading in one of Mr. Ruskin's 

 works a reference to true and false art in its influence upon 

 the national mind. He states his view of the work of a true 

 artist to be the daily drawing of simple objects around him, with 

 severe care of truthfulness even at the expense of " finish." The 

 mind of such an one, habituated by truthful representation, 

 becomes quickly sensible of deception, and this imparts a moral 

 tone. Mr. Ruskin then draws an instructive contrast between 

 India and Scotland. Referring to art in India, he says that there 

 the imagination is enthroned and alone bows to itself, natural 

 form being allowed to have no place in it, and the exaggerated 

 forms of the national art — themselves the products of impure 

 imagination — supplying the material for fresh manifestation of 

 degeneracy in the mode of art representation. Thus reduced, its 

 final aid is evoked in the production of deities which the nation, 

 in its moral corruption, is prepared to receive at its hands. 

 Indian art finds its ideal in the product of a distorted imagination 

 which is ever feeding upon itself. In it there is neither inspira- 

 tion nor incentive ; and this, too, in a country so rich in natural 

 scenery, and where true art might be expected to flourish. Scot- 

 land, on the other hand, though a country possessing scenery that 

 might justly be termed grand, is not so rich in the kind of beauty 

 that has been so freely lavished upon India. Yet Scotland is in 

 every Scotchman, and his love of his country comes largely from 



