564 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 461. 



grace and beauty, the elements of its power, and 

 the right use of it, are the students of pure and 

 applied science, who, being eager in youth to get 

 at their work directly, despise such mere scholastic 

 accomplishments as rhetoric, grammar and logic. 

 The result often is that, when they have discov- 

 ered something which they are eager to give to the 

 world and which the world ought to know, they 

 have no vehicle of language and style worthy to 

 convey their noble facts and great ideas to the 

 public. * * ♦ Many a scientific man has learned 

 in middle life, with bitter regret, that he must 

 take a lower place than he deserves among his 

 fellow-workers because he can not tell what he 

 knows in language that is intelligible and attrac- 

 tive. Others have been hindered in their course, 

 and never knew the reason why. 



But worse than inability to write vigorously 

 and pleasingly is the widespread lack of ap- 

 preciation of clear and precise expression. 

 De Quincey, in his celebrated essay on ' Style,' 

 said, referring especially to professional au- 

 thors : 



Proof lies before you, spread out upon every 

 page, that no excess of awkwardness, or of inele- 

 gance, or of unrhythmical cadence, .is so rated in 

 the tarifi' of faults as to balance, in the writer's 

 estimate, the trouble of remoulding a clause, of 

 interpolating a phrase, or even of striking a pen 

 through a superfluous word. The evidence is per- 

 petual, not so much that they rest satisfied with 

 their own random preconceptions of each clause 

 or sentence, as that they never trouble them- 

 selves to form any such preconceptions. What- 

 ever words tumble out under the blindest accidents 

 of the moment, those are the words retained. 



In his ' Principles of Success in Litera- 

 ture,' George Henry Lewes, referring to the 

 writings of philosophers and men of science, 

 said: 



If 3'ou allude in their presence to the deplorably 

 defective presentation of the ideas in some work 

 distinguished for its learning, its profundity, or 

 its novelty, it is probable that you will be de- 

 spised as a frivolous setter up of manner over 

 matter, a light-minded dilettante, unfitted for the 

 simple austerities of science. But this is itself 

 a light-minded contempt; a deeper insight would 

 change the tone, and help to remove the disgrace- 

 ful slovenliness and feebleness of composition 

 which deface the majority of grave works, except 

 those written by Frenchmen, who have been taught 



that composition is an art, and that no writer 

 may neglect it. 



If these strictures are just, the subject de- 

 mands attention. 



I am well acquainted with the writings, as 

 found in manuscripts submitted for publica- 

 tion, of about one hundred scientists, young, 

 middle-aged and old. One is justified in sup- 

 posing that on such manuscripts the authors 

 have done their best work. I have classified 

 these authors in three groups : Good, fair, 

 poor — ' good ' meaning those whose writing 

 is clear, orderly and forcible ; ' fair ' meaning 

 those whose writing is, indeed, clear and pas- 

 sably methodical, but is not forcible; and 

 ' poor ' meaning those whose writing is tur- 

 bid or chaotic or has other defects which 

 render it of little value, such as extreme ver- 

 bosity. In the good group fall 19 per cent., in 

 the fair group 57 per cent, and in the poor 

 group 24 per cent. That is to say, neglecting 

 such formal bagatelles as the split infinitive, 

 and merging the details of purity, propriety 

 and precision in the larger qualities, I find 

 that fewer than one fifth of these authors write 

 with clearness, method and force, and that al^ 

 most one fourth of them do not write even 

 clearly. 



Into this evaluation there enters, of course, 

 whatever weakness may reside in my individ- 

 ual judgment. I am sure, however, that the 

 finding is not vitiated by prejudice or favorit- 

 ism, conscious or unconscious; and in mak- 

 ing the assignments to the three classes I gave 

 every author the benefit of a doubt. 



Of these men about 75 per cent, have had 

 collegiate or university training; their almse 

 matres are our leading universities and 

 schools of science. No fewer than twenty 

 of them are now professors or instructors in 

 such institutions of learning, and most of 

 these fall in the fair class: their writing is 

 not strong. In a few cases it is markedly 

 weak; in other cases there is manifested an 

 abundance of energy, but it is not under good 

 control. In the good class there is at least 

 one who is self-educated. Thus it appears 

 that scientific and university life, with the 



