132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 605. 



raphy does not necessarily mean contribu- 

 tion to knowledge. It does not even imply 

 originality of thought or breadth of obser- 

 vation. It is quality that counts, and a 

 single fact well tested and set in orderly 

 relation may outweigh volumes of argu- 

 ment or theory. Under the stimulus to 

 get into print, very much is now put forth 

 which university men everywhere feel 

 might be better dropped into the waste- 

 basket. This would be its final fate, printed 

 or not, were it not for the demands of 

 blindly conscientious bibliographers. Some 

 twenty years ago I used these words: 



I am well aware that there is a cant of in- 

 vestigation, as of religion and of all other good 

 things. Grermany, for example, is full of young 

 men who set forth to investigate, not because 

 they ' are called to explore truth,' but because 

 research is the popular fad, and inroads into 

 new fields the pre-requisite to promotion. And so 

 they burrow into every corner of science, philology, 

 philosophy, and history, and produce pretty results 

 in as automatic fashion as if they were so many 

 excavating machines. Real investigators are born, 

 not made, and this uninspired digging into old 

 roots and ' Urquellen ' bears the same relation 

 to the work of the real investigators that the 

 Latin verses of Rugby and Eton bear to Virgil 

 and Horace. Nevertheless, it is' true that no 

 second-hand man was ever a great teacher. I very 

 much doubt if any really great investigator was 

 ever a poor teacher. How could he be so? The 

 very presence of Asa Gray was an inspiration to 

 students of botany for years after he had left the 

 class-room. Such a man leaves the stamp of his 

 greatness on every student who comes within the 

 range of his influence. 



University authorities must, therefore, 

 not fear to become respecters of persons. 

 They should give time, freedom, appliances, 

 where these things can be used, while re- 

 fusing them to the man who would thereby 

 merely advertise his own insignificance. 



The valuation of research is, at best, a 

 difficult problem. Much of the results of 

 hard labor would be better left unpub- 

 lished, and the valuations set by the au- 

 thors will not be recognized by the workers 



of the future. Spurious research is worse 

 than nothing. The pressure to print some- 

 thing is responsible for much of it; the 

 leisure of fellowships for much more. Only 

 a few men can make use of leisure. More- 

 over, leisure without adequate salary avails 

 little. The busy man under the pressure 

 of poverty, edits texts, writes cyclopedias, 

 throws out potboilers of every kind avail- 

 able to his profession. This is not research. 

 It may be respectable, but it does not de- 

 velop originality nor mark progress. 



In the American university of to-day we 

 teach too much, too many hours, too much 

 that is not worth while, too much to people 

 who do not care for this teaching. We 

 teach at too low a tension, with too little 

 enthusiasm, too little inspiration, throwing 

 too little responsibility on the students, 

 showing too great patience with those not 

 worthy to accept responsibility. The men 

 we call professors are paid too little, helped 

 too much in their early preparation, pro- 

 moted too rapidly and above all with too 

 little discrimination. It would be better 

 for our universities if half our teachers 

 were in some other profession— if the best 

 half were the ones who remained. This 

 will not be the case until our present scale 

 of salaries is advanced. There is too much 

 encouragement of 'digs' — men with tech- 

 nical accuracy but without personal force 

 or originality or skill in interpretation of 

 new material. There is too much tolera- 

 tion of volatile versatility and of the meth- 

 ods of the Sunday supplement. In our 

 profession it is too easy to get into line for 

 promotion, while promotion itself ought to 

 carry more pay, more freedom, and with 

 all this far higher responsibilities than 

 those we now demand. 



Some large degree of freedom from 

 teaching should, therefore, be accessible to 

 the investigator, and this freedom can only 

 be stated as a principle not reduced to rule 



