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Vol. 12 January, 1916 No. 1 



The Science-Spirit in a Democracy 



By L. H. Bailey 



President's Address before Ameriean Nature-Study Society, 

 Columbus, 0., December 30, 1915 



We have had many definitions of nature-study. I am sure 

 that all of them are interesting. We have been careful to draw 

 the distinctions, for our technical and professional purposes, 

 between nature-study on the one side and science-teaching on 

 the other; but we all come together in the inquiry of nature in 

 one way or another, and we are all, to that extent, making quests 

 in science. The methods of presenting our work to pupils, and the 

 organization of it in courses of study, naturally require much of 

 our attention; but for the moment I ask you to consider some of 

 the large relations of the spirit of scientific inquiry as it applies 

 in a spontaneous and democratic form of society. 



The Science-Spirit 



To find the fact and to know the truth, — this is the purpose 

 of the quest of science. If the truth can be applied to the arts 

 of life, the gain is good; but the truth is valuable on its own 

 account, and for the range and reach that it imparts to the mind. 

 As the truth is of itself, as it knows no person and no condition, 

 so is its application impartial and so is its effect on the mind 

 uncompromising. 



One never makes the quest with success unless the mind is 

 open at the start. The quest is to find out, always to discover, 

 never to prove a thesis or to demonstrate an a priori position. 

 Herein does this mind differ from that of the advocate who must 



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