LITERARY CULTURE 287 



strength and encouragement, such as no department of 

 science can give you. There will come times, even to 

 the most enthusiastic among you, when scientific work, 

 in spite of its absorbing interest, grows to be a weari- 

 ness. At such times as these you will appreciate the 

 value of the literary culture you may have received at 

 school or college. Cherish the literary tastes you have 

 acquired, and devote yourself sedulously to the further 

 cultivation of them during such intervals of leisure as 

 you may be able to secure. 



Over and above the pleasure which communion with 

 the best books will bring with it, two reasons of a 

 more utilitarian kind may be given to science students 

 why they should seek this communion. Men who 

 have been too exclusively trained in science, or are too 

 much absorbed in its pursuit, are not always the most 

 agreeable members of society. They are apt to be 

 somewhat angular and professional, contributing little 

 that is interesting to general conversation, save when 

 they get a chance of introducing their own science 

 and its doings. Perhaps the greatest bore I ever met 

 was a man of science, whose mind and training were 

 so wholly mathematical and physical that he seemed 

 unable to look at the simplest subject save in its physi- 

 cal relations, about which he would discourse till he 

 had long exhausted the patience of the auditor whom 

 he detained. There is no more efficacious remedy for 

 this tendency to what is popularly known as ' shop ' 

 than the breadth and culture of mind that spring from 

 wide reading in ancient and modern literature. 



The other reason for the advice I offer you is one 

 of which you will hardly, perhaps, appreciate the 



