Sigma Xi I 253 



smallest comfort or assistance to any naturalist in any 

 field. The author in his desire for originality eschewed 

 the science of his time and is said to have even kept 

 secret his self-imposed task until near the close of a long 

 life when fear lest his work be left incomplete induced 

 the publication of his purpose. Needless to say that is 

 not the true spirit of research. The student must ex- 

 ercise good judgment, and this exercise ought to have 

 high regard for the work of others as they toil about him. 

 In fact he should feel constantly the kindliest sympathy 

 with all who have ever garnered in his field before; he 

 must be able to appreciate their successes as well as to 

 discover their difficulties and failures. His work should 

 be in the main constructive, and while it may not infre- 

 quently be necessary to recast or revise the conclusions 

 of those who have gone before us, yet we can never 

 wholly ignore them. In a most real and reverent sense 

 we may always say : * ' Other foundation can no man lay 

 than that which is laid/' 



Of course, I would not have the investigator here too 

 conservative ; he must be untrammelled ; he must be per- 

 fectly free. Above all, he must not, he dare not imitate. 

 That which every man can do best in this world no other 

 man can do quite so well, such is the law of natural gifts. 

 We must appreciate our fellow-worker but we dare not 

 copy him. If we do we are apt to gain but half his 

 strength and to lose our own entirely. Nevertheless the 

 true laborer along the lines suggested by Sigma Xi must 

 know and know with sympathy. 



But Sigma Xi demands yet other qualifications of 

 those who would worthily bear the name. It was re- 



