September 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



407 



weakness, despite tlie strife ending so often 

 in defeat, despite all the obstacles which the 

 struggle for existence has placed in our 

 path. In some form they should persist 

 throughout our lives and sustain us in our 

 old age. 



But the account of our early life should 

 be simple, detached from any motives of 

 self-depreciation or self-assertion, and free 

 from any desire to push any particular 

 moral or psychological theory. We want 

 to trace the dawn of ambition, the first 

 glimmering in the child's mind that there 

 is something that he can do better than his 

 fellows and reminiscences of early likes and 

 dislikes which, though apparently discon- 

 nected from maturer tendencies, may 

 serve as indications of a deep-seated pur- 

 pose in life. It may be difficult to resist 

 the temptation of trying to justify one's 

 reputation in the eyes of the world ; but it 

 is worth making the effort. The only ex- 

 ample that I know of such an autobiograph- 

 ical sketch is that of Darwin, which is con- 

 tained in his "Life and Letters," published 

 by his son. Sir Francis Darwin. 



The ambition of a child to be better, 

 cleverer, or more beautiful than its fellows 

 is in the main, I think, a wish to please and 

 to be praised. As the child grows up, the 

 ambition becomes more definite. It is not 

 a sordid ambition for ultimate wealth or 

 power, nor is it an altruistic ambition to do 

 good for the sake of doing good. Occasion- 

 ally it takes the form confessed to by Dar- 

 win, when he says : "As a child I was much 

 given to inventing deliberate falsehoods, 

 and this was always done for the sake of 

 causing excitement. ' ' This desire to be con- 

 spicuous was, in Darwin's case, consistent 

 with extreme modesty, amounting almost 

 to a want of confidence in himself, as ap- 

 pears in this passage : " I remember one of 

 my sporting friends. Turner, who saw me 

 at work with my beetles, saying that I 



should some day be a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and this notion seemed to me to be 

 preposterous. ' ' 



We next come to the stage where a child 

 is attracted by one subject more than 

 another, and, if his choice be free, will se- 

 lect it for his life's career. What guides 

 him in this choice 1 If it be said that a boy 

 gravitates towards that subject which he 

 finds easiest, we are led to the further ques- 

 tion why does he find it easiest? It is on 

 this point that more information is re- 

 quired, but I am inclined to answer in ac- 

 cordance with Poiticare's views that it is 

 because its particular beauty appeals most 

 strongly to his emotional senses. In ques- 

 tions of this kind everyone must form his 

 own conclusions aceorditag to his personal 

 recollections, and these convince me that 

 the emotional factor appears already at an 

 early age. It is the strong attraction 

 towards particular forms of reasoning, 

 more perhaps even than the facility with 

 which reasoning comes, that carries us over 

 the initial difficulties and the drudgery 

 that must accompany every serious study. 



I have already alluded to the different 

 tendencies of individuals either to prefer 

 solitary reflection or to seek companionship. 

 Almost in every profession we find men of 

 both types. Darwin's autobiography fur- 

 nishes a good example of the man who pre- 

 fers to learn through quiet reading rather 

 than through lectures, but to many men of 

 science the spoken word is inspiring and 

 contact with congenial minds almost a ne- 

 cessity. 



From our present point of view the most 

 interesting passages in Darwin's autobiog- 

 raphy are those indicating the esthetic feel- 

 ing which, like Poincare, he connects with 

 scientific research. Referring to his early 

 studies we find this passage : " I was taught 

 by a private tutor and I distinctly remem- 

 ber the intense satisfaction which the clear 



