EDITORIAL 361 
upon the meetings of the Association and not less perhaps upon 
the meetings of the Geological Society of America. Without 
doubt a certain measure of formal contact with general society 
is helpful to the ends sought by the Association. At the same 
time it must be recognized that formal social functions are 
largely the province of the leisure class and that from the very 
nature of the case they must remain so, for leisure and the 
means of leisure are prerequisites to their effective cultivation. 
Equally from the nature of the case, the devotees of science do 
not usually belong to the leisure class because real success in 
science involves strenuous endeavor and an almost unlimited 
devotion of time. The diversion of time to social functions 
during the meetings of the Association should, therefore, be 
zealously watched and restrained within limits which are com- 
patible with the efficient conduct of the primary purposes of the 
Association. Particularly is this true of the Geological Society 
which has no organic relation to general society. The move- 
ment in the direction of social formality has already crowded 
hard upon the point where the first requisite preparation for a 
meeting of the Association or of the Geological Society ts the 
packing of a dress suit, and the second is the preparation of an 
after-dinner speech, preparations that are none too congenial to 
the great mass of hard workers in science. 
ae sic: 
