president's address. 17 



and I distinctly remember the intense satisfaction which the clear 

 geometrical proofs gave me. I remember with equal distinctness the 

 delight which my uncle gave me by explaining the principle of the 

 vernier of a barometer. ' To a man who apparently had no pronounced 

 facility of mastering mathematical difficulties this feeling of satisfaction 

 is especially remarkable. The combinatioa of scientific ability with 

 leanings either to music, or art, or poetry, is very common, and 

 examples are to be found in almost every biography of men of science. 

 It is difficult indeed to name an eminent scientific man who has not 

 strong leanings towards some artistic recreation : we find the poetic vein 

 in Maxwell and Sylvester, the musical talent in Helmholtz and 

 Rayleigh, and the enthusiastic though amateurish pictorial efforts of 

 less important men. That the similarities are to be found also in 

 lemperament may be noticed on reading Arnold Bennett's article on 

 ' The Artist and the Public,' * where many passages will be seen to be 

 applicable to students of science as well as to writers of fiction. 



If we look for distinctions between different individuals, we may 

 find one in their leanings either towards the larger aspects of a question 

 or the microscopic study of detail. The power of focussing simul- 

 taneously the wider view and the minute observation is perhaps the 

 most characteristic attribute of those who reach the highest eminence 

 in any profession, but the great majority of men have a notable predilec- 

 tion for the one or other side. Though it is indispensable for a scientific 

 man to study the details of the particular problem he is trying to solve, 

 there are many who will lose interest in it as soon as they believe they 

 can see a clear way through the difficulties without following up their 

 solution to its utmost limits. To them detail, as such, has no interest, 

 and they will open and shut a door a hundred times a day without being 

 even tempted to inquire into the inner working of the lock and latch. 



There is only one feature in the operation of the intelligence by 

 means of which a sharp division may possibly be drawn between brain- 

 workers showing special capabilities in different subjects. In some per- 

 sons thought attaches itself mainly to language, in others to visualised 

 images, and herein lies perhaps the distinction between the literary 

 and scientific gift. Those who, owing to external cii'cumstances, have 

 resided in different countries are sometimes asked in what language 

 they think. Speaking for myself, I have always been obliged to answer 

 that, so far as I can tell, thought is not connected with any language 

 at all. The planning of an experiment or even the critical examina- 

 tion of a theory is to me entirely a matter of mental imagery, and hence 

 the experience, which I think many scientific men must have shared, 

 that the conversion of thought into language, which is necessary when 



* English Review, October 1913. 

 1915. c 



