40 National Life 



maintained at the highest state of efficiency. 

 Shortly, we want scouting in all branches of 

 the national service ; we need men who will 

 observe what others are doing, who will seek 

 for new supplies, and push the nation and 

 prepare cautiously for its advance in every 

 way. 



I will not underrate the importance of the 

 equipment of the scout. He undoubtedly 

 profits by technical knowledge. You cannot 

 send a man to push trade if he have no 

 knowledge of the language of the people he 

 has to deal with, or an engineer to discover 

 mineral resources without an elementary 

 acquaintance with geology. But I insist 

 that the trained mind is the first thing, and 

 for scouting a fool on horseback is worth less 

 than a wise man on foot. We are a wealthy 

 nation, and I fear we find it easier to provide 

 the equipment than to discover the master- 

 scout. I have yet to learn that the physicist 

 with palatial laboratory and elaborate and 

 costly implements will do more for his pupils 

 than the man with no instrument-maker 

 behind him. The biologist with his 80 

 microscopes and specimens drawn from the 



