Sigma Xi I 257 



concern ; Tyndall and Priestley were poor. Let us hope 

 that Mr. Carnegie's money may bring forth abundant, 

 early, and continual fruit. And yet I venture the pre- 

 diction that the course of research will be for a long 

 time yet to come a steep and thorny way and not the 

 primrose path of dalliance. Wealth so easily falls in the 

 way of industry and clips the wings of zeal ! There is so 

 much in this world that money cannot buy. I believe 

 that rarely in this day, at least in this country, is re- 

 search retarded by lack of sufficient means. The man 

 who has the spirit in him will find the way. What we 

 need most and perhaps it is rather this that Mr. Car- 

 negie intends to bring to being is the right atmosphere, 

 a generous atmosphere, where an assembly of men shall 

 always be found whose ideals are the promotion of 

 knowledge and nothing else. The Carnegie Institution 

 shall be such a sodality of earnest men. High example 

 is worth more than money and I believe that the bond of 

 sympathy that runs through such an organization as the 

 Sigma Xi is yet and forever worth more for science than 

 all the millions of the generous-minded Scotchman. 



What any individual may do is to some extent no 

 doubt determined by his opportunity; nevertheless it is 

 by what is done and not by the opportunity that each at 

 last is judged. "What hath he done?" says Emerson, 

 "is the divine question that searches men and pierces 

 every false reputation. A fop may sit in any chair in 

 the world nor be distinguished for the hour from Homer 

 or Washington; but there can never be any doubt con- 

 cerning the respective merits of human beings when we 

 come together to seek the truth. ' ' 



