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bution is but a note. It is grave if the subject is complex, and 

 the writing extensive. Moreover, I have observed that the 

 difficulty increases in proportion to the ignorance of the writer. 

 Many a big book could have been boiled down to a few chapters, 

 and in some cases to a few sentences, or to nothing at all, had 

 its author been possessed of clear ideas. As a means of com- 

 pression, learn to think. This is too much to expect of every 

 one, but not too much to insist upon for the man of science. 

 Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Clarity 

 is the soul of truth, and especially in science there should be an 

 idea behind every expression, and this idea should be stated as 

 clearly as language permits. To read the dictionary is usually 

 considered in the light of a joke, but I doubt if any student could 

 do better, and that, too, through a long series of years. If he 

 does not continually thumb grammar and dictionary, and per- 

 sistently read the best authors, he will seldom acquire a luminous 

 and persuasive style, than which, exclusive of a single-minded 

 devotion to the truth, nothing is more to be desired. There are 

 various ways of saying things, but only one best way. Never- 

 theless, to read the contributions of many scientific men one 

 would suppose they must think any method of expression suffi- 

 cient, even the most clumsy and ambiguous. Yet such is not 

 the case. In spite of this motley array of bad writers, it is best 

 that subject and predicate should agree, that one should avoid 

 split infinitives and especially that each statement should be 

 susceptible of but one interpretation! 



Every paragraph and every sentence in your paper should 

 receive careful and repeated consideration, first, as to whether it 

 tells the exact truth; second, as to whether it is absolutely clear, 

 i.e., will convey the same meaning to all as to yourself (try it 

 on your friends, if they will submit to it) ; third, as to whether 

 it is complete, or requires various additions or qualifications — 

 science is an eternal qualification; fourth, as to whether the 

 sentences in it are entirely logical and move convincingly toward 

 your final conclusions. These things can be determined only by 

 repeated readings and much pondering. It helps greatly, when 

 one has finished a paper, judging from my own experience, to 

 turn back and re-write the whole of it. During this laborious 



