THOROUGHNESS AND BREADTH 301 



to reach it, the greater will be the success of your 

 investigations. The effort after accuracy will be 

 transferred from your scientific work to your every- 

 day life and become a habit of mind, advantageous 

 both to yourselves and to society at large. 



In the next place, I would set Thoroughness, which 

 is closely akin to accuracy. Again, your training here 

 has shown you how needful it is in scientific research 

 to adopt thorough and exhaustive methods of pro- 

 cedure. The conditions to be taken into account are 

 so numerous and complex, the possible combinations 

 so manifold, before a satisfactory conclusion can be 

 reached. A laborious collection of facts must be made. 

 Each supposed fact must be sifted out and weighed. 

 The evidence must be gone over again and yet again, 

 each link in its chain being scrupulously tested. The 

 deduction to which the evidence may seem to point 

 must be closely and impartially scrutinised, every other 

 conceivable explanation of the facts being frankly and 

 fully considered. Obviously the man whose education 

 has inured him to the cultivation of a mental habit of 

 this kind is admirably equipped for success in any 

 walk in life which he may be called upon to enter. 

 The accuracy and thoroughness which you have learnt 

 to appreciate and practise at College must never be 

 dropped in later years. Carry them with you as 

 watchwords, and make them characteristic of all your 

 undertakings. 



In the third place, we may take Breadth. At the 

 outset of your scientific education you were doubtless 

 profoundly impressed by the multiplicity of detail 

 which met your eye in every department of natural 



