538 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1405. 



cient for the next. We earnestly hope that 

 any appeal that may be made for funds to 

 improve this Department of Zoology may meet 

 with the generous response it certainly de- 

 serves. 



Edwin S. Goodrich 



THE SPIRIT OF RESEARCH 



The recent World War emphasized the im- 

 portance of scientific investigation and as a 

 result there has followed a vigorous campaign 

 to promote research in America. In conse- 

 quence a great deal has been published 

 recently concerning the mechanism, of re- 

 search; how we may cooperate; how the large 

 university with superior equipment may help 

 the teacher in the small institution to keep 

 alive the hope that is within him to do re- 

 search work; we have bulletins issued from 

 time to time which bring certain fields of 

 knowledge up-to-date; we have compendia on 

 the technique of research; in a host of differ- 

 ent ways the machinery for doing research is 

 being cleaned and oiled and must run infi- 

 nitely better than it has in the past. This is 

 all exeeeedingly important and must be done 

 if we are to take a share in the program of 

 scientific investigation. Back of all this ma- 

 chinery, however, must be human minds and 

 the progress we make in the search for truth 

 is going to depend on the spirit which ani- 

 mates these human minds guiding this ma- 

 chinery of research and taking part in the 

 actual investigation of the many unsolved 

 problems about us and trying to 



Bead the world 's old riddles well. 



In other words, the motives which primpt 

 men to spend long hours and sleepless nights 

 trying to fathom the depths of the unknown 

 will determine the success individuals have 

 in their work. 



As one goes over the records of human 

 achievements in history, there is developed 

 in the reader a sense that the great achieve- 

 ments of the world have been in the realm 

 of the spiritual. (Using that term in its 

 broadest meaning.) The Magna Charta, the 

 advent of the Pilgrim Fathers, the Boston 



Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, 

 the Emancipation Proclamation are events 

 and articles having the greatest spiritual 

 significance. Great because they were staged 

 for the uplift of the masses and not for the 

 aggrandizement of the few as the failures of 

 Alexander, Napoleon and William the Second 

 are glaring examples. 



It would seem that lessons of immense 

 value to us might be gleaned from history 

 as an aid in stimulating the spirit of re- 

 search. Wliat have the ancients to offer us? 

 If achievement comes by means of spiritual 

 forces then the animus of research must be 

 spiritualized. Too much have we strayed 

 from the simplicity of spirit which ruled the 

 mind of the savant on the isle of Penikese 

 who had 



come in seaxeh of truth 



Trying with uncertain key 



DooT by door of mystery. 



Too much have we been stimulated by per- 

 sonal ambition in our " search for truth." 

 Promotion, because of the amount of research 

 we do is not the spiritualization sought for 

 in this plea. The fundamental virtue of the 

 investigator is a passion for truth whatever 

 it be and through whatever channels it may 

 come. As Bosworth says. 



One 's only safety consists in a fair treatment of 

 facts. One fact fairly treated leads to another, and 

 this to another. Facts treated as they ought to be 

 treated lead always to a larger life. 



This means not only a larger life for the in- 

 vestigator but more particularly for the great 

 human family about him. Imbued with this 

 spirit the seeker after truth goes in its search 

 with the altruistic ambition of making the 

 world a better place to live in, in every sense 

 of the word " making it safe for democracy." 



Not of the sunlight, 

 Not of the moonlight, 

 Not of the starlight 1 

 O young Mariner, 

 Down to the haven 

 Call your companions, 

 Launch your vessel. 

 And crowd your canvas, 

 And, e 'er it vanishes 



