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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1059 



high standards, may indeed be said to be the 

 chief criterion of a high civilization. 



There is reason to believe that the dem- 

 ocratic movement of our time has in many 

 ways been unfavorable to the development 

 of strong individuality in the fields of sci- 

 ence, literature and the arts. The collec- 

 tive spirit is now dominant, especially in 

 America, and even in academic life many 

 are unduly influenced by the desire of pro- 

 ducing work which will make a direct appeal 

 to the community at large, rather than work 

 which is new and meritorious in itself, ir- 

 respective of whether it is popular or not. 

 This spirit is inconsistent with disinterest- 

 edness, and hence tends to repress original- 

 ity. It is hard to escape its influence; it 

 constitutes an atmosphere — that element 

 which is at once the most intangible and 

 the most essential to life. We can however 

 resist it if we only wish; and a spirit of 

 independence or self-respect, that refuses 

 to have its standards determined by any- 

 thing short of firmly grounded personal 

 conviction is the best safeguard. There is 

 a sense in which too easy submission to the 

 prejudices of a majority is like too easy 

 submission to the dictates of a king or em- 

 peror. In either case the result is weak- 

 ening to individuality, and hence to all 

 work, like the work of scholarship, which 

 demands independence and individuality. 



We must remember that we are living 

 in a time which tends to regard the col- 

 lective welfare as the chief if not the only 

 legitimate object of action. In one sense 

 this is a great source of encouragement; it 

 augurs well for the future of humanity at 

 large; but it has its drawbacks. Little 

 attention is paid, except by a few detached 

 persons here and there, to the danger of 

 having the whole national spirit dominated 

 by the belief that nothing but work in the 

 interest of large numbers is of any impor- 

 tance. Eelated to this is another very char- 



acteristic tendency. Where so many ques- 

 tions in politics and practical life are de- 

 cided by counting of heads, a strong bias 

 in favor of mere numbers is inevitable. 

 Now there may be no disadvantage in this 

 unless it becomes instinctive, i. e., acted upon 

 automatically and uncritically; but it is 

 just this instinctive prejudice that prevails 

 so strongly nowadays. All forms of activ- 

 ity share its influence ; and it shows itself in 

 educational institutions and universities in 

 such phenomena as an over-insistence on 

 the importance of large enrolments, the con- 

 ferring of too numerous degrees, and a dis- 

 tinct and widespread tendency to leniency 

 in the standards of quality. Public opinion 

 in a democracy favors these manifestations, 

 and an institution dependent on public 

 opinion for its support can not afford to be 

 too unsympathetic toward them. But a 

 danger lies here, which is perhaps the more 

 insidious since it can be recognized and 

 guarded against by comparatively few. If 

 we work only in the interest of and at the 

 bid of majorities, we are in grave danger of 

 disregarding the claims of the minorities. 

 And this means undervaluing those types of 

 person who are necessarily always in the 

 minority, i. e., exceptional persons of all 

 kinds. The curious result follows that in 

 a democracy, the political system which is 

 theoretically the most favorable to liberty, 

 the individual, regarded as an individual — • 

 and not as representative of a group (whose 

 numbers may entitle it to respect)- — often 

 meets ^vith little consideration. In other 

 words, too much respect for collectivism 

 tends to impair the respect which is due the 

 individual, and personal liberty suffers. 

 There arises a tendency to treat all persons 

 in the mass, undiscriminatingly ; and neces- 

 sary distinctions fail to be made. Com- 

 plaints of the low estimate which the demo- 

 cracies of England, France and America 

 place on even the best and most gifted in- 



