IQO Lamplitgh : Man as an Ins rument of Research. 



registered and interpreted by the intellect. Let us next con- 

 sider this matter of their registration and interpretation. 



The Interpreting Faculty. 



For, after all, in scientific research it is upon the conversion 

 of the sense-impression into its equivalent thought that every- 

 thing depends. However sensitive our faculties may be as 

 receiving instruments, they are of no avail to science unless 

 we are able severally to transmute their records into approxi- 

 mately equivalent ideas, and to transmit these ideas accurately 

 to other minds. Herein lies the factor which differentiates 

 man from any other organism known to us ; herein also lie 

 the chief differences between man and man in effectiveness as 

 instruments of research. 



We can all grasp the meaning of the metaphysicians when 

 they affirm that of the whole universe, only such part as becomes 

 imaged by thought is real to us. It is, in fact, our conscious 

 and persistent aim in science ever to extend the boundaries 

 of reality in this sense. And man himself is the sole instru- 

 ment by which our aim can be achieved ; our ingenuity can 

 devise no extraneous aid in this process. 



Wide as the variations of personal faculty are in respect to- 

 the senses, they are slight if compared with the variations in 

 the purely mental faculties with which we are now concerned. 

 Being the latest acquisition of humanity, the power of abstract 

 thought has apparently not yet become standardized but is 

 in full evolution, throwing our experimental shoots in every 

 direction. I think it is largely by virtue of this unstable 

 condition that the rapid progress of modern science has been 

 possible. In the new world that has opened before us, there 

 has been, and still is, room for every type of mental endowment, 

 and for each its appropriate task ; while our greatest advances 

 have been made by the harmonious blending of results attained 

 through diverse means. In this need for diversity of faculty- 

 there is encouragement for everyone interested in science, and 

 especially for those who desire to share actively in its advance- 

 ment, since it brings the certainty of usefulness in some degree 

 to every participant. 



It must not be forgotten, however, that a heavy respond 

 sibility rests upon him who undertakes to add his gleanings 

 of new knowledge to the common stock. After having brought 

 the full power of his senses to bear upon the object of his 



Naturalist, 



