July 7, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



research mind we need in the teacher. 

 Such a man is of less value than the in- 

 structor who studies his subject but makes 

 no pretense to so-called "productive work." 



The research mind keeps up to date in its 

 correlations and brings the inspiration of 

 the best and newest into each teaching day. 

 Sometimes one feels that the external drive 

 towards research by university sentiment 

 leads to many puny efforts and to abortive 

 results. Perhaps, however, even though the 

 result to science is small, the effect upon 

 the individual is salutary. The greatest 

 sport the world knows is the search for the 

 absolutely new in any line. One need only 

 sense the joy once to feel its lure. 



I recall when working in Ehrlich's labo- 

 ratory in Frankfurt his pleasure in each of 

 the new chemical substances formed by 

 him. He would make a new combination 

 and show it to those working near him, 

 even insist upon putting it into their hands 

 to hold for a moment, saying: "Sehen Sie 

 mal, jemand hat, es nie vorher gesehen; es 

 ist ganz neu." Think of the satisfaction, 

 the sport: "No one has ever seen it before: 

 it is absolutely new." Who that could 

 would not try a round in such a game? 

 The successful players in it are those who 

 have builded strong in mind and body — ■ 

 who have climbed to the upper heights, ob- 

 scured by the mists, where the game is 

 played. Each group of workers pushes the 

 altitude upwards, broadens and solidifies 

 the base, turns peaks into plateaus. The 

 chosen few scale the lofty, unexplored 

 spurs; the many join in filling in the gaps, 

 opening up the intervening spaces, and ma- 

 king the secure level ground. We can not 

 all be scouts ; most of us must make up the 

 rank and file of the army; some of us can 

 only play the part of quartermasters. 



The attitude of the university towards 

 research should be a sane one. At times 

 waves of research hysteria have swept over 



university circles and the sense of propor- 

 tion has been lost. The number of pub- 

 lished pages has seemed to be the standard 

 of scholarship rather than the character of 

 the work done. One has often seen research 

 notes elaborated into articles; articles sub- 

 sequently enlarged to monographs, and 

 monographs padded out into books. The 

 essential thing, however, is the discovered 

 fact, the reasoning leading up to and away 

 from the new fixed point. There is no 

 common standard possible in this work nor 

 in research in general; but the university 

 can insist that the instruction offered by 

 its research workers shall show that fresh 

 and stimulating point of view, and that 

 enthusiasm, that go with the growing mind 

 that is abreast of the best thought in its 

 subject. Under these conditions research 

 will play that large part in the life of the 

 university faculty which it should play, and 

 students and teachers will make progress 

 in their chosen fields. 



Immortality is a theme upon which hu- 

 man thought has exhausted itself without 

 absolute and universal conviction because 

 it takes the human mind beyond its depth 

 at the first long stride forward. But there 

 is one phase of immortality about which we 

 can all be assured. The mind of to-day can 

 through the minds of to-morrow project it- 

 self into immortality. Ideas and ideals 

 travel through generations of minds to 

 eternity. It will ever be the inspiration of 

 the teacher that to him in particular comes 

 this great opportunity to be a part of the 

 future, by moulding and guiding and train- 

 ing the minds of the present. 



The man who discovers some new ar- 

 rangement of forces, some new fact in re- 

 gard to chromosomes, some fresh chemical 

 combination, the cause of an obscure dis- 

 ease, has thereby become immortal, for his 

 effort has added something which, if true, 

 can not be lost to the human race. What 



