March 5, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



335 



watch witliout weariness tlie movements of 

 living things when they could not be in- 

 duced to study the pictures of them in a 

 book. Even many of the higher animals 

 show great interest in and curiosity about 

 moving objects which would remain un- 

 noticed if perfectly still. Is not the 

 source of this universal interest in living 

 things to be found in the fact that we recog- 

 nize in them fellow creatures with feelings 

 akin to our own? Is not the great craze 

 for moving pictures due to the fact that the 

 movements make the pictures live? 



Instinctively we recognize the kinship of 

 all living things ; instinctively we attribute 

 to them the joy and sorrow, the fear and 

 courage, the love and hate which we also 

 experience; instinctively our curiosity is 

 aroused and our observation and imagina- 

 tion are stimulated. And when we are 

 older grown and have learned more about 

 the "mechanism of life" do we not find 

 that our curiosity, admiration and wonder 

 are increased rather than diminished? 

 Does not the great mystery of life appeal 

 to the biologist even more than to others? 

 I am sure that I represent the experience 

 of every biologist when I say that the living 

 world is a powerful and unfailing stimulus 

 to the faculties of observation and imagina- 

 tion. 



3. Biology occupies a unique place 

 among all the sciences in its cultivation of 

 esthetic appreciation and broad sympathies. 

 It was for this reason that the late Pro- 

 fessor Blackie said that he would have all 

 young persons taught music and natural 

 history. The naturalist is an artist in 

 spirit if not in technique. It is sometimes 

 a question how to classify the great artist- 

 naturalists of the past such as Leonardo, 

 Chamisso, Goethe and Audubon, and even 

 if in these days of greater specialization 

 the technique of art and of science are 

 rarely combined in the same person the 



spirit of the two is combined in every 

 naturalist worthy of the name and not 

 infrequently strives to express itself in the 

 figures and plates with which he adorns his 

 scientific papers. 



The biologist is thrilled by the beauty, 

 the fitness, the mystery of organisms, and 

 no scientific explanations of this beauty, 

 fitness and mystery can destroy the esthetic 

 appreciation which they cultivate. In the 

 anatomical study of dead bodies there is 

 less of this esthetic sense than in the study 

 of living, moving, sentient beings, and yet 

 was it not Johannes Miiller who said ' ' The 

 anatomist should have the eye of an angel, 

 the hand of an artist and the stomach of a 

 pig"? 



With this esthetic appreciation of nature 

 there is mixed a broad sympathy with all 

 living things. We can appreciate the feel- 

 ings of that student who said that before he 

 studied biology he used to try to crush the 

 earthworms on the walks, but now that he 

 had learned something about their marvel- 

 lous structures and habits he carefully 

 avoided stepping on them. Every ornithol- 

 ogist can appreciate the feeling of St. 

 Francis of Assisi who called the birds his 

 brothers. In this building which is a monu- 

 ment to his ability and energy I can not 

 forget the naturalist Montgomery, who re- 

 membered to his dying day ' ' the thriU with 

 which he first heard the song of the blue 

 bird" and who rejoiced that he was a part 

 of immortal nature. 



The biologist has his eyes open to the 

 beauties, the joys, the sufferings of living 

 things. What an outrage it is that he is so 

 often pictured as a cruel and bloody mon- 

 ster ! His sympathies extend not merely to 

 his humbler brothers, but his human sym- 

 pathies are broadened and deepened. The 

 real naturalist can not look upon the Ger- 

 mans or Russians or French or English as 

 monsters. He recognizes his kinship not 



