100 ZOOLOGY 



over even greater men occupied in other ways. We are 

 told that this is an age of specialists, and it is certainly 

 true that we are coming to depend more and more on 

 leaders of this class. The more eminent, at least, also 

 lead by virtue of inborn ability, but the group as a 

 whole is a product of particular forms of education. 

 The arrangement permits society to act on a basis of 

 intelligence far exceeding that possible for a single 

 citizen, and through our means of communication the 

 wisdom of the specialists is almost immediately avail- 

 able to all who are able to profit by it. Conse- 

 quently, it becomes worth while to expend large sums 

 of public money in support of scientific research, 

 whereby truths are ascertained and become common 

 property. We must add, however, that even this form 

 of leadership, so beneficial in most respects, is not with- 

 out its dangers. Specialists who devote themselves to 

 the intensive study of particular problems are likely to 

 become narrow-minded, so that they fail to see the re- 

 lations between their own discoveries and things in 

 general. Their truth is true, but is not the whole truth. 

 Thus the fruits of special research need to be recon- 

 sidered and restated in the light of a broader philosophy, 

 and it would be a misfortune if all the ablest members of 

 society restricted themselves to narrow though produc- 

 tive fields of intellectual activity. 



