4^4 



NATURE 



[October 13, 19 10 



view is that wiili young clnildren this should be less 

 necessary ; they all possess it, and are by nature inquisi- 

 tive. It should rather be the object of the teacher not to 

 spoil the spirit of inquiry by allowing it to run riot, nor 

 to stifle it by making the work uninteresting; if the lesson 

 interests them, their inquisitive minds will be quick enough 

 to assimilate the teaching. We are, in fact, brought back 

 to what I have already emphasised — that the real differ- 

 ence between the inquisitive mind of the child and the 

 inquiring mind of the adult is that the former is yearning 

 for information quite regardless of what it may lead to, 

 whereas the latter must , learn or investigate with an 

 object if the interest is to be excited and maintained. 



I have often thought it an interesting parallel that 

 among original investigators and researchers there are 

 two quite distinct types of mind, which have achieved 

 equally valuable results. There is the researcher who 

 pursues an investigation with a constant purpose, and to 

 whom the purpose is the inspiration. But there is also 

 the investigator who has preserved his youthful enthusiasm 

 for novelty, and has in some respects the mind of a child ; 

 passionately inquisitive, he will always seek to do some- 

 thing new, and very often, like a child, he will tire of a 

 line of research in which he has made a discovery, and 

 take up with equal enthusiasm a totally different problem 

 in the hope of achieving new conquests. I think that a 

 man well known in Sheflield, the late Henry Clifton 

 Sorby, must have been a man of this character. The 

 latter is, perhaps, the most fertile type of original investi- 

 gator, but it is not the type that produces the best 

 teacher, except for very exceptional and original-minded 

 students ; and such teachers do not often found a school 

 of learning and research endowed with much stabilitv. 

 For ordinary students, the investigator who pursues his 

 researches so far as possible to their conclusion is the 

 safer guide. 



It seems to me suggestive that there are to be found, 

 even amongst the famous researchers, these two types of 

 mind, that somewhat correspond to the mental attitude of 

 the school pupil and the Univei'sity student. It is as 

 though these great men have preserved a juvenile spirit, 

 some from the days of their childhood, others from early 

 manhood. 



It will now be clear that the principle which I am 

 advocating is a very simple one, namely, that the busi- 

 ness of direct mental training should be finished at school, 

 and that at the University the trained mind should be 

 given material upon which to do responsible work in the 

 spirit of inquiry. Preparatory exercises belong to school 

 life, and should be abandoned at the University. 



.All this seems so obvious that it might appear to be 

 hardly worth saying were it not that the methods which 

 actually prevail are so far removed from this ideal. 



When, for example, a boy who has not learnt Greek or 

 chemistry at school comes to the University and proposes 

 to take up one of these subjects, he is generally put 

 through a course of exercises which differ in no essential 

 respect from those which are set before a boy of twelve. 

 In other words, our University method for the trained 

 mind does not really differ from our school method, which 

 is supposed to be adapted to the mind in course of train- 

 ing. Again, boys who have been learning certain subjects 

 for years at school, but are weak in them, have their 

 education continued at the University in the same sub- 

 jects by the same school methods until they can be 

 brought up to the requirements of a first University 

 examination, which in its character does not differ much 

 from the examinations held at school. Where in this 

 process is to be found the introduction of that spirit of 

 inquiry and investigation which ought to characterise the 

 University course? 



It may be asked. In what manner is this change to be 

 introduced, and how is it possible under present conditions, 

 where so many students are all pursuing ordinary degree 

 courses and have no time or opportunity for special work, 

 to provide teachers who can educate them in this spirit, if 

 it is also their duty to get pass students through their 

 examinations? The answer. I think, is that in a Uni- 

 versity the professors and higher teachers should be, with- 

 out_ exception, men who, whatever may be their teaching 

 duties, are also actively engaged in investigation. Their 

 assistants should be teachers who, even if the whole or 

 NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



part of their time is occupied in routine teaching, have 

 yet had some experience in, and possess real sympathy 

 with, modern advanced work under such professors. This 

 is only to be secured by insisting that teachers in a Uni- 

 versity should all have had some experience of original 

 work, and, just as one of the necessary qualifications for 

 an elementary teacher is some education in method, so 

 a necessary qualification for a University teacher should 

 be some education , in research. Anyone desirous of 

 qualifying for University teaching should be compelled to 

 devote a certain portion of his student career to research, 

 and the funds of a University cannot be better applied than 

 to the retention of the better students at the University 

 for the distinct purpose of enabling them to pursue in- 

 vestigation under the professor for a period of one year 

 after they have completed their degree course, if they have 

 not been able to do so during their undergraduate period. 

 It is not, however, too much to hope that the majority of 

 those who are endeavouring to qualify for the higher 

 educational posts will be assisted to obtain this special 

 experience during their degree course. Under the present 

 system at most L'niversities, unless the student has been 

 fortunate enough to come in contact with a teacher imbued 

 with the spirit of research who is carrying on his own 

 investigations, it rarely happens that he has the time or 

 the means which would enable him to obtain any insight 

 into the meaning of investigation before he leaves to take 

 up teaching work. The need of post-graduate scholar- 

 ships for this purpose is very widely felt, and is now fre- 

 quently expressed. To insist upon such qualifications for 

 all University students is, of course, under present con- 

 ditions impossible ; but there .should be no insuperable 

 difTicultv in insisting upon them for those who are to be 

 allowed to enter a University as teachers. 



Researchers are born, not made, and it is not by any 

 means desirable that all University students should be cast 

 adrift to make new researches and seek discoveries even 

 under the direction of experienced teachers and investi- 

 gators. This must depend to some extent upon the 

 character of the pupil as well as of the teacher. 



The mere publication of papers m.ay mean nothing, and 

 much that is dignified with the name of research is of no 

 account. To turn a lad on to research, unless it be in the 

 right spirit, may be only to set him a new e.xercise instead 

 of an old one ; to leave him to prosecute an investigation 

 for himself may be to condemn him to disappointment 

 and failure. On the other hand, to carry on any piece 

 of work, whether it be new or old, in the zealous spirit of 

 inquiry, with faith in a purpose, is to insure the intel- 

 lectual interest of the student ; and I cannot see why this 

 spirit should not animate all University education, whethe*- 

 it be accompanied by original research or not. The 

 essential condition is that the chief University teachers 

 should themselves create an atmosphere of investigation. 



So deep-seated is the belief that nothing must be under- 

 taken without a preparatory course of training that even 

 the best and most brilliant students are frequently dis- 

 couraged from undertaking a new study until they have 

 been subjected to the mental discipline of an elementary 

 course in it. 



I cannot refrain from quoting an example which came 

 within my own e.xperience, although I have already alluded 

 to it in another address delivered last year. 



When I was at O.xford a young Frenchman of excep- 

 tional ability, whose training had been almost exclusively 

 literary and philosophical, and who was at the time 

 engaged on a theological inquiry, expressed to me his 

 regret that he had never learnt to understand by prac- 

 tical experience the meaning of scientific work. .And when 

 I assured him that nothing was easier than to acquire 

 practical experience by taking up a piece of actual investi- 

 gation under the direction of a scientific worker, he ex- 

 plained to me that when he had applied for admission to 

 scientific laboratories he had been told that it was useless 

 to do so until by preparatory courses he had acquired an 

 adequate knowledge of mathematics, physics, and chem- 

 istry. I offered to make the trial with him, and began 

 with a problem that happened to interest me and that 

 required a new method of simple experimental research. 

 I soon found that a well-trained mind, able to grasp the 

 meaning of the problem and eager to investigate it, could 

 begin without delay upon the experiments, and in the 



