448 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1056 



it can, and I have a strong lay suspicion 

 that it can be done in all other subjects. 



It is my main purpose to show, with some 

 regard to conereteness and detail, that the 

 thing is feasible in mathematics. Before 

 doing so, however, I desire to view the 

 matter a little further in its general aspect 

 and in particular to deal with some of the 

 considerations that tend to deter many 

 scientific specialists from entering upon the 

 enterprise. 



One of the considerations, and one, too, 

 that is often but little understood, and so 

 leads to wrong imputations of motive, 

 though it is in a sense distinctly creditable 

 to those who are influenced by it, is the 

 consideration that relates to intricacy and 

 technicality of subject-matter and doctrine. 

 Every specialist knows that the principal 

 developments in his branch of science are 

 too intricate, too technical and too remote 

 from the threshold of the matter to be acces- 

 sible to laymen, whatever their abilities and 

 attainments in foreign fields. Not only 

 does he know that there is thus but rela- 

 tively little of his science which laymen 

 can understand but he knows also that 

 the portions which they can not under- 

 stand are in general precisely those of 

 greatest interest and beauty. And knowing 

 this, he feels, sometimes very strongly, that 

 were he to endeavor by means of a lecture 

 course to give laymen a general acquaint- 

 ance with his subject, he could not fail to 

 incur the guilt of giving them, not merely 

 an inadequate impression, but an essen- 

 tially false impression, of the nature, sig- 

 nificance and dignity of a great field of 

 knowledge. His hesitance therefore, is not 

 due, as it is sometimes thought to be, to 

 indifference or to selfishness. Rather is it 

 due to a sense of loyalty to truth, to a sense 

 of veracity, to an unwillingness to mislead 

 or deceive. Of course strange things do 

 sometimes happen, and it is barely con- 



ceivable that once in a long time nature 

 may, in a sportive mood, produce a kind 

 of specialist whose subject affects him much 

 as the possession of an apple or a piece of 

 candy affects the boy who goes round the 

 corner in order to have it all himself. But 

 if the type exist, not many men could 

 claim the odd distinction of belonging to 

 it. Specialists are as generous and humane 

 as other men. Their subjects affect them 

 as that same boy is affected when, if he 

 chance to come suddenly upon some strange 

 kind of flower or bird, he at once summons 

 his sister or brother or father or mother or 

 other friend to share in his surprise and 

 joy. There is this difference, however — ^the 

 specialist must, unfortunately, suffer his 

 joy in solitude unless and until he finds a 

 comrade in kind. I admit that the deter- 

 rent consideration in question is thoroughly 

 intelligible. I contend that the motive it 

 involves presents an attractive aspect. But 

 I can not think it of sufiicient weight to be 

 decisive. It involves, I believe, an errone- 

 ous estimate of values, a fallacious view of 

 the ways of truth to men. A few years ago, 

 when making a railway journey through 

 one of the most imposing parts of the Eocky 

 Mountains, I was tempted like many an- 

 other passenger to procure some photo- 

 graphs of the scenery in order to convey to 

 far-away friends some notion of the won- 

 ders of it. So far, however, did the actual 

 scenery surpass the pictures of it, excellent 

 as these were, that I decided not to buy 

 them, feeling it were better to convey no 

 impression at all than to give one so infe- 

 rior to my own. No doubt the decision 

 might be defended on the ground of its 

 motive. Did it not originate in a certain 

 laudable sense of obligation to truth? 

 Nevertheless, as I am now convinced, the 

 decision was silly. For in accordance with 

 the same principle it is plain that I ought 

 to have wished to have my own impressions 



