254 On the Campus 



quired of the candidate for initiation into the Eleusinian 

 mysteries of old that he place himself for days under 

 certain definite restraints, he must for days exercise per- 

 fect self-control. Such self-restraint and of yet higher 

 order is required to-day of every scientific worker. It is 

 hard, very hard, to toil in silence, without reward, with- 

 out applause, without approval even; yet just such toil 

 lies at the bottom of every real piece of successful work. 

 The inexperienced student is apt to be eager to bring his 

 work to light. He fears, perchance, that another may 

 prevent him, preclude him, and it is sometimes very try- 

 ing to normal patience to quietly labor on to the satisfac- 

 tory solution of our problem when of necessity time is 

 likely an all-important factor. Neither Wallace nor Dar- 

 win ever published a preliminary report. It is said that 

 the note-books of Mr. Darwin for the single work, the 

 Descent of Man, would be reckoned a small library and 

 opposite a great many of these manuscript notes and 

 memoranda copied out with the utmost pains, often in 

 his own hand, appears the author's final comment: 

 ' ' This statement seems to be unfounded " ; ' ' this is a mis- 

 take "; and so on in scores of cases. 



Every man assuming to do original work must be his 

 own severest critic. Science deals in facts, and yet only 

 the man of science knows how hard it is to state a fact, 

 how hard it is to tell the truth. Perhaps we never see 

 the truth exactly ; the so-called personal equation forbids 

 that; but to tell the truth as we do perceive it requires 

 a degree of self -discipline that comes only, if at all, after 

 years of practice and self-restraint. I am no slanderer 

 of my race when I assert that some men never attain this 



