300 SCIENCE IN EDUCATION 



making much practical use of the knowledge in science 

 which you have gained here. To those who may 

 ultimately be thus situated it will always be of advan- 

 tage to have had the mental training given in this 

 Institution, and it will probably be your own fault 

 if, even under unfavourable conditions, you do not 

 find, from time to time, chances of turning your 

 scientific acquirements to account. Your indebtedness 

 to your professors demands that you shall make the 

 effort, and, for the credit of the College, you are 

 bound to do your best. 



Among the mental habits which your education 

 in science has helped to foster, there are a few which 

 I would specially commend to your attention as worthy 

 of your most sedulous care all through life. 



In the first place I would put Accuracy. You have 

 learnt in the laboratory how absolutely essential this 

 condition is for scientific investigation. We are all 

 supposed to make the ascertainment of the truth our 

 chief aim, but we do not all take the same trouble 

 to attain it. Accuracy involves labour, and every 

 man is not gifted with an infinite capacity for taking 

 pains. Inexactness of observation is sure sooner or 

 later to be detected, and to be visited on the head 

 of the man who commits it. If his observations are 

 incorrect, the conclusions he has drawn from them 

 may be vitiated. Thus all the toil he has endured 

 in a research may be rendered of no avail, and the 

 reputation he might have gained is not only lost 

 but replaced by discredit. It is quite true that ab- 

 solute accuracy is often unattainable ; you can only 

 approach it. But the greater the exertion you make 



