WIDE READING NEEDFUL 303 



keep pace with the advance of all its departments, 

 you should try to hold yourselves in touch with at 

 least the main results arrived at in other branches than 

 your own ; while, in that branch itself, it should be 

 your constant aim to watch every onward step that 

 is taken by others, and not to fall behind the van. 

 This task you will find to be no light one. Even 

 were it confined to a survey of the march of science 

 in your own country, it would be arduous enough 

 to engage much of your time. But science belongs 

 to no country, and continues its onward advance all 

 over the globe. If you would keep yourselves in- 

 formed regarding this progress in other countries, as 

 you are bound to do if you would not willingly be 

 left behind, you will need to follow the scientific 

 literature of those countries. You must be able to 

 read at least French and German. You will find in 

 these languages a vast amount of scientific work 

 relating to your own department, and to this accumu- 

 lated pile of published material the journals of every 

 month continue to add. In many ways it is a mis- 

 fortune that the literature of science increases so fast ; 

 but we must take the evil with the good. Practice 

 will eventually enable you to form a shrewd judgment 

 as to which authors or papers you may skip without 

 serious danger of losing any valuable fact or useful 

 suggestion. 



In the fifth place, let me plead for the virtue of 

 Patience. In a scientific career we encounter two 

 dangers, for the avoidance of which patience is our 

 best support and guide. When life is young and 

 enthusiasm is boundless ; when from the details which 



