264 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1445 



to secure a better understanding of their true 

 relations. 



Although recognizing fully the specific aims 

 of scientific and of humanistic investigation 

 one can not avoid being impressed with the 

 importance of considering the similarity of 

 their methods and purposes. It is particu- 

 larly desirable to consider this interrelation as 

 a great group of thinking people still holds 

 humanistic and scientific problems so different 

 that common criteria may not be used gen- 

 erally in their solution. 



Scholarship and culture as they are in- 

 volved in the aims of Phi Beta Kappa have 

 been considered often to represent a goal 

 quite different from that toward which the 

 scientific investigator strives in Sigma Xi. 

 Scholarship should mean understanding and 

 wisdom, not merely information. Culture has 

 been taken to represent refinement of educa- 

 tional attainment and appreciation of knowl- 

 edge, coupled with the development of per- 

 sonal characteristics giving that balanced 

 judgment sometimes known as mental poise. 

 Culture should furnish perspective and inter- 

 pretation. Its perspective should make it 

 possible to fit into their proper relations all 

 available facts and to determine the position 

 which new knowledge should take. In its 

 truest expression it should be active and not 

 passive, constructive and not absorptive. The 

 imitative spirit is its greatest danger. True 

 culture is a comprehensive vision and an at- 

 titude of the active interpreting mind. 



Sigma Xi was organized to promote com- 

 radeship in research. Its activity has been 

 limited not infrequently to the so-called nat- 

 ural history subjects. I am unable to con- 

 ceive of this organization as functioning 

 logically if it does not cover the whole range 

 of investigative or constructive thought in 

 which the scientific metliod is used. I think 

 of it as standing for development of the atti- 

 tude of mind which produces the builder, 

 rather, than for conduct of specific researches 

 within a limited field. 



Research lias been defined as a reaching 

 out to bring together, organize and inter- 

 pret whatever may be added to our store of 

 knowledge. It may express itself in the most 

 intensive studies in verj' narrowly defined re- 



gions, but is most truly exemplified when it 

 involves the wider relationship of specific facts 

 to the whole structure of knowledge. 



In the processes of research it is difficult to 

 distinguish between those operations which are 

 mereljr the gathering and those which are in- 

 terpretation and definition. Simple collecting 

 of materials without giving them their proper 

 places and without interpreting them is work 

 of a relatively low order and is doubtfully 

 classed as original investigation. 



By definition the present discussion is lim- 

 ited to relationships between culture and re- 

 search as expressed in the university. A clear 

 understanding of my purpose, therefore, in- 

 volves recognition of the real aim in univer- 

 sity activities. Without intending to offer a 

 complete classification of the objects and plans 

 of educational work it may be well to set 

 forth the following as representing some 

 of the aims of university life. These are, first, 

 to hold before young men and women the rnir- 

 ror of knowledge and experience in which they 

 may be able to see reflected the qualifications 

 which fit them individually for this or that 

 profession; second, to give classified informa- 

 tion; third, to develop wisdom or judgment; 

 fourth, to stimulate the growth of constructive 

 or creative ability; and, fifth, to inculcate the 

 element of character, which defines our relation 

 to the world of human life. The highest aims 

 of education are far from being generally 

 understood. Many still think of this agency 

 as informational rather than constructive, 

 teaching imitation rather than initiative, and 

 as focussed upon the past rather than the 

 future. 



One of the most fully valid criticisms of 

 university study lies in the fact that too often 

 it looks backward without adequate expression 

 of relation between past and future. The 

 young men and women who form the student 

 body are at that early stage in which they 

 have practically no past and naturally live 

 in the present and future. Their eyes are 

 turned forward with keen expectation of what 

 the coming years may bring. Life and move- 

 ment of life are to them the supreme enjoy- 

 ment. Until their individual pasts begin to 

 evidence marked effect upon the trend of their 

 futures, uninterpreted history and experience 



