November 7, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



73] 



tion of every special development of knowl- 

 edge or of aptitude that is to lift a man to 

 his profession or a scholar to his function 

 of investigation. 



I have studied the history of America; 

 I have seen her grow great in the paths of 

 liberty and of progress by following after 

 great ideals. Every concrete thing that 

 she has done has seemed to rise out of some 

 abstract principle, some vision of the mind. 

 Her greatest victories have been the vic- 

 tories of peace and of humanity. And in 

 days quiet and troubled alike Princeton 

 has stood for the nation's service, to pro- 

 duce men and patriots. Her national tra- 

 dition began with John Witherspoon, the 

 master, and James Madison, the pupil, and 

 has not been broken until this day. I do 

 not know what the friends of this sound 

 and tested foundation may have in store 

 to build upon it; but whatever they add 

 shall be added in that spirit, and with that 

 conception of duty. There is no better 

 way to build up learning and increase 

 power. A new age is before us, in which, 

 it would seem, we must lead the world. 

 No doubt we shall set it an example unprec- 

 edented not only in the magnitude and 

 telling perfection of our industries and 

 arts, but also in the splendid scale and 

 studied detail of our university establish- 

 ments: the spirit of the age will lift us to 

 every great enterprise. But the ancient 

 spirit of sound learning will also rule us ; 

 we shall demonstrate in our lecture rooms 

 again and again, with increasing volume 

 of proof, the old principles that have made 

 us free and gi-eat; reading men shall read 

 here the chastened thoughts that have kept 

 us young and shall make us pure; the 

 school of learning shall be the school of 

 memory and of ideal hope ; and the men 

 who spring from our loins shall take their 

 lineage from the founders of the repub- 

 lic. 



WooDROw Wilson. 



THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 



The trustees of the Carnegie Institution 

 obviously have an exceedingly difficult task 

 on their hands. The difficulty is not so 

 much due to the magnitude of the endow- 

 ment as to the uniqueness of what they 

 have to do. They are launched in very 

 imperfectly charted waters where there are 

 many hidden dangers, and they will have 

 to drive their ship forward much of the 

 time under a slow bell and probably will 

 have to reverse her engines occasionally. 

 But this method of navigating will meet the 

 approval of a great majority of the scien- 

 tific men of the country, just because they 

 will recognize the conditions under which 

 it is being done and will see it to be the 

 best method. 



The trustees would be justified in put- 

 ting a plank into their policy to the effect 

 that nothing shall lie undertaken, for some 

 years at least, that cannot he easily 

 changed or even given up should the course 

 of events make it iest to do so. In fact I 

 imagine that about this policy is tacitly ex- 

 pected by most scientific men. For exam- 

 ple, I suspect my own surprise at the 

 announcement that the institution had 

 acquired the Woods Holl Laboratory and 

 had pledged itself to erect an expensive 

 building and spend $20,000 a year in run- 

 ning it was rather widely shared by those 

 like myself who are keenly interested on- 

 lookers. 



This remark is not at all intended as a 

 criticism, for although it is difficult to see 

 from the distance of California how the 

 move could have been the wisest that might 

 have been made, yet I do not doubt that, 

 seen from within, there were good and 

 sufficient reasons for making it. My only 

 point is that the announcement surprised 

 me because I had not supposed it would be 

 the policy of the institution, at the outset 

 of its career at any rate, to do that sort of 

 thing. 



