652 BACTERIAL DISEASES OF PLANTS 



quest within the year for references to all of the literature of 

 plant pathology. Such requests, coming now and then, eUcit 

 only a smile, but dozens of them get to be a bore. 



What We Owe to the Future. — Our duty to posterity re- 

 quires us to pass on the torch of learning, trimmed and burning 

 brightly. The little we are able to do individually brightens or 

 obscures the pathway of science just to the extent that we are 

 honest or dishonest, penetrating or dull. Our duty to the future 

 is to do things thoroughly, to state things clearly, to point out 

 weak places in our own work as freely as in that of others ; and to 

 cover up and obscure defective spots, for our own immediate profit 

 or reputation, under no circumstances whatever. If you have 

 made a mistake, the manly way is to own it. Shame should 

 not deter you, for every one makes mistakes, even the most 

 famous and the most circumspect : Darwin made them, Pasteur 

 made them. The only man who never makes any mistakes is 

 the one who never makes any discoveries. 



Ideals. — ^You are to remember that you are consecrated to 

 the truth. If that prevails and you have helped to make it 

 prevail, what matters it if you are first in the race, or last? 

 In Milton's noble words, ''They also serve who only stand and 

 wait!" Nevertheless, the workman is worthy of his hire, and 

 the great public is too little cognizant of this fact when that 

 workman is a scientific man and not the director of a corpora- 

 tion. Science and the scientific man have not yet come to their 

 own. The hfe of the common man in modern times has been 

 ameliorated in a thousand ways by the labors of scientific men 

 but he seldom thinks of this, and the Croesus never! It is a 

 part of our duty to demand justice and fair play and to organize 

 to get it if necessary. 



Cultivate good judgment, be not easily discouraged, confess 

 ignorance, aim high, be diligent! What Montaigne said about 

 learning in general, applies with pecuhar force to science — La 

 science, pour bien faire, il ne Jaut pas seulement la loger chez sot, 

 il la faut epouser. In his fascinating chapter "On books," 

 Montaigne also has the following words of wisdom which are 

 well worth taking to heart: La science et la verite peuvent loger 

 chez nous sans iugement; et le iugement y peult aussi esire sans 



