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SCIENCE 



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



sity exists largely to give opportunity to 

 men of this kind. He must get over the 

 feeling that it is necessary, or at least fit- 

 ting, to apologize for the unpractical nature 

 of his activities. The university is aware that 

 many things can be done only by taking 

 thought, just as others require immediate 

 action without any particular thought. 

 There is inevitably isolation and detach- 

 ment in much of the work of universities; 

 this is especially true of the work of inves- 

 tigation. Eemember Wordsworth's lines 

 on Newton's statue at Cambridge Univer- 

 sity: 



The marble index of a mind forever 



Wandering througli strange fields of thought alone. 



The withdrawal of such a man from the 

 world is deliberate; only so can his pur- 

 poses be achieved. 



This withdrawal imprints a characteristic 

 quality on academic life, with which it is 

 often reproached. The very word academic 

 is often popularly or journalistically used 

 to signify remoteness from actuality. It 

 might with equal justice be used as signify- 

 ing nearness to actuality; but the fact is 

 simply that the university recognizes as 

 important or even pressing actualities many 

 matters which to the world at large are vir- 

 tually non-existent. The apparent ineilec- 

 tuality of much academic work is a serious 

 grievance to many people; and certain 

 movements directed toward the radical mod- 

 ification of time-honored academic usages 

 and privileges have arisen as the expression 

 of this feeling ; some persons, no doubt con- 

 scientious, have favored a system of super- 

 vision and time-keeping, with the object- 

 laudable, no doubt, if only it were practica- 

 ble — of making sure that the holders of uni- 

 versity chairs do not waste their time. But 

 it is just here that the uninitiated judgment 

 is likely to lose its bearings; and we may 

 well continue to repeat with the Sybil: 

 "Procul este, profani!" "Who is to be the 



judge in these matters? Who will guard 

 the guardians? What constitutes effectu- 

 ality in the intellectual sphere? We must 

 refuse to be misguided by false criteria in 

 these matters. What is most effectual in 

 the activities of the scholar can not always 

 be discerned even by his immediate associ- 

 ates. Nothing but the perfect witness of 

 all-judging Jove would sufiiee for this. 

 The true criteria are not evident to those 

 ignorant of his work ; and in forming an es- 

 timate of its value, confidence and respect 

 for individuality have to be combined with 

 the judgment passed by his peers in the 

 learned world. If for lack of sympathy or 

 special knowledge we fail to see the value 

 of certain fields of scholarly work, there is 

 nothing for it but to accept the assurances 

 of those who know. Their judgment is 

 likely to be critical enough, and not to err 

 on the side of leniency. All plans of im- 

 posing upon the scholar rigid requirements 

 from without — apart from the necessary re- 

 sponsibilities of teaching and contributing 

 to his subject — are impracticable. I have 

 mentioned certain recent attempts directed 

 toward a closer external oversight of aca- 

 demic work; the authors of these attempts 

 have urged that it would be well, in the in- 

 terests of "efficiency," to estimate more 

 closely the time which the occupants of uni- 

 versity chairs devote daily to research, to 

 teaching and to other activities. This is 

 officialism run mad, you may say ; but there 

 the fact stands. Some one, well known as a 

 defender of academic freedom, has re- 

 marked that the only really effective scien- 

 tific mind works twenty-four hours a day. 

 In saying this he may have had in mind 

 Landor's passage: 



The capacious mind neither rises nor sinks, 

 neither labors nor rests, in vain; even in those 

 intervals vphen it loses the consciousness of its 

 powers it acquires or recovers strength, as the 

 body does by sleep. 



