July 30, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



99 



ity, fairness, justice, and democracy. Indeed 

 all high intellectual effort, whether in science 

 or in the humanities, embodies this spirit. I 

 can think of no happier illustration of this 

 fact than the reply of the celebrated Amer- 

 ican artist, Edwin A. Abbey, when he was 

 asked why he was so particular about the 

 historical exactness of every detail, being 

 assured that he was the only one who would 

 know the difference. He replied by quoting 

 the following verse: 



In the elder days of art, 



Builders wrought with greatest care, 



Each minute and unseen part; 

 For the gods see everywhere. 



He said: 



It is because I can't forget those lines that I 

 must make things as right as I know how, even if 

 nobody is the wiser. ' ' The gods see everywhere. ' ' 



It is this spirit of honesty with one's self 

 for the sake of honesty and truth that per- 

 vades all genuine intellectual effort, whether 

 in science or in the humanities, and infiltrates 

 into the body iwlitic of a nation comprising 

 true scholars among its people. It is one of 

 the imponderables of civilization and the 

 more our nation indulges in it and fosters 

 it the higher will our civilization be. 



The men who live in the hearts of the 

 human race as a source of inspiration and 

 greatness are those that have unconsciously 

 contributed to civilization out of the great- 

 ness of their souls and their work. It is not 

 the great financier, the captain of industry, 

 or the merchant prince who lives through the 

 ages, but rather the men who have " con- 

 tributed materially to the fulfillment of man's 

 destiny and bequeathed to future generations 

 some new particle of truth, of beauty, of 

 justice" — a Michael Angelo, a Newton, a 

 Shakespeare, a Darwin, a Pasteur, a Frank- 

 lin, a Lincoln. It is the spirit of such men 

 that lives in a people and makes a nation 

 truly great. Lowell in commenting on the 

 industrial accomplishments of this nation 

 put the whole matter most aptly when he 

 said it is 

 with quite another oil that those far-shining lamps 



of a nation's true glory, which burn forever, must 

 be filled. It is not by any amount of material 

 splendor or prosperity, but only by moral great- 

 ness, by ideas, by works of imagination that a 

 race can conquer the future. ... Of Carthage, 

 whose merchant fleets furled their sails in every 

 part of the known world, nothing is left but the 

 deeds of Hannibal. . . . But how large is the space 

 occupied in the maps of the soul by little Athene. 

 It was grea/t by the soul, and its vital force is as 

 indestructible as the soul. 



This, I take it, is the spiritual force that 

 we as students of the sciences must join hands 

 with students of the humanities in maintain- 

 ing and increasing in the world. And I am 

 constrained to believe that, despite the ap- 

 parent zeal for material development in this 

 country, this spirit of moral greatness has 

 ever been present here although, at times, it 

 may have slumbered. If anything has been 

 clearly demonstrated during the last five 

 years it is that there are multitudes of young 

 men and women that are ready and eager to 

 give their all even unto death for truth and 

 its corollaries, justice, freedom, and democ- 

 racy. And it is appropriate that we here 

 dedicate ourselves to the furtherance of this 

 spirit and that we here resolve that we shall 

 maintain it and if possible increase it in our 

 beloved nation. It is you young men and 

 women who must take the torch of intellec- 

 tual idealism borne by many of your illus- 

 trious predecessors and pass it undimmed 

 through the coming years to your successors. 

 Glenn W. Herrick 

 Cornell IJNrvERSiTT 



USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS 



Probably many who are interested in wild 

 plants have wondered what uses were made of 

 them by the Indians before white men came. 

 Dr. Melvin E. Gilmore has recently published^ 

 such an account (relating chiefiy to the region 

 of Nebraska) which it has seemed desirable 

 to review in the following form. 



While we are familiar with the changes 



1 ' ' Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri 

 Eiver Eegion. " In Thirty-third Ann. Eept. Bur. 

 Am. Ethn. (1911-1912), pp. 43-154, 33 pi., 1919. 



