THE OBSERVING FACULTY 295 



in danger of being displaced by rivals with sharper 

 eyes and greater powers of adaptation. 



It is the special function of science to cultivate 

 this faculty of observation. Here in Mason College, 

 from the very beginning of your scientific studies 

 you have been taught to use your eyes, to watch 

 the phenomena that appear and disappear around you, 

 to note the sequence and relation of these pheno- 

 mena, and thus, as it were, to enter beneath the 

 surface into the very soul of things. You cannot, 

 however, have failed to remark among your fellow- 

 students great inequalities in their powers of obser- 

 vation, and great differences in the development of 

 these powers under the very same system of in- 

 struction. And you may have noticed that, speaking 

 generally, those class-mates who have shown the best 

 observing faculty have taken a foremost place among 

 their fellows. It is not a question of mere brain- 

 power. A man may possess a colossal intellect, 

 while his faculty of observation may be of the feeblest 

 kind. One of the greatest mathematicians of this 

 century who, full of honours, recently passed away 

 from us, had so little cognisance of his surroundings, 

 that many ludicrous stories are told of his child-like 

 mistakes as to place and time. 



The continued development of the faculty of prompt 

 and accurate observation is a task on which you can- 

 not bestow too much attention. Your education here 

 must already have taught you its value. In your 

 future career the use you make of this faculty may 

 determine your success or your failure. But not 

 only have your studies in this College trained your 



