OCTOIiEK 31, 19U2.] 



SCIENCE. 



697 



vantage, are, indeed, in extreme instances, 

 shamefnlly wasted. 



■ Having ventured so far in the presenta- 

 tion of tliis point of view, I shall venture 

 farther to defend it against one form of 

 objection to which, in the opinion of some, 

 it seems to lie open. We are told that a 

 fellowship may degenerate into a form of 

 almsgiving, that men need not be paid to 

 study or to investigate, that grants to in- 

 dividuals smack of paternalism, and so on. 

 To my thinking these positions are entirely 

 false ; and when a college president main- 

 tains that 'great gifts to education have 

 been for the purpose not of feeding men 

 but of furnishing means of study and in- 

 vestigation beyond the reach of individual 

 effort,' he expresses a strangely perverse 

 view of the situation. If we can only feed 

 the right man — to hold for the moment to 

 this needlessly brusque form of statement 

 — we cannot perform a more notable serv- 

 ice than by thus supplying at least one of 

 the conditions for a career of greatest po- 

 tential value to the nation. In one sense 

 the greater portion of all educational en- 

 dowments goes towards the maintenance of 

 men. Fortunate, indeed, is the state of 

 affairs that in some cases makes such en- 

 dowment unnecessary. In reading the his- 

 tory of science in England one is repeatedly 

 thankful that this man and that were so 

 situated financially that they could devote 

 their whole time and energy towards con- 

 tributing to the world's knowledge. As we 

 read the life of Huxley we share with him 

 the feeling of relief when a comfortable 

 living was at length assured him. It will 

 hardly do to say that the true investigator 

 will come to the front and create the con- 

 ditions needed for his work despite all per- 

 sonal hardships and deprivations. The 

 question is always painfully apropos: 

 Where are the ships of those who were not 

 saved and whose gratitude is not recorded 

 by the models suspended from the church 



beams? The cases of successful achieve- 

 ment despite inadequate facilities and en- 

 couragement should never be forgotten ; 

 but the great unknown mass of possibili- 

 ties that lie buried beneath the waves of 

 adversity likewise tell to the imaginative a 

 suggestive story. 



From the initial encouragement of a fel- 

 lowship up to the highest honors of the 

 scientist's career there should be rewards 

 and appreciations, equal at least to those 

 that invite men of exceptional talent in 

 comparable spheres of intellectual activity. 

 When the editor of Science tells us that 

 'the greatest obstacle to the advancement 

 of science is, in my opinion, the circum- 

 stance that scientific men are not directly 

 rewarded for their investigations and dis- 

 coveries,' he is not implying any special 

 lack of altruistic sentiment on the part cf 

 men of science; he is forcibly pointing out 

 the essential disparity between the attrac- 

 tion to men of rare powei*s of the scientific 

 and of comparable careers. 



I have not left myself space to speak of 

 other practical suggestions deducible in 

 conformity with my main thesis. This is, 

 perhaps, the less necessary, as the editor 

 of Science has already indicated some cf 

 them. The establishment of at least a few 

 notable prizes and of supplementary and 

 adequate salaries for the encouragement of 

 research are more ambitious but equally log- 

 ical deductions from the principle of the 

 direct endowment of men. The establish- 

 ment of research fellowships is another. The 

 creation of a board of managers for the in- 

 stitution, membership in which shall consti- 

 tute a great honor and be suitably re- 

 warded, is again in conformity with this 

 view. It would be a great aid to the status 

 of the university professor if there were 

 some great prizes in the educational world 

 outside of the administrative field. As it 

 is, the college presidencies' offer the most 

 attractive incomes to men seeking the edu- 



