60 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 263. 



foolish to ignore the fact that teaching and 

 research do not always make an harmoni- 

 ous pair. There will always be in letters 

 and in science a group of men, often marked 

 by genius as her own, who are keenly 

 sensitive to the restraints and routine of 

 instruction. Lowell said that being a pro- 

 fessor was not good for him ; it damped the 

 gunpowder of his mind, so that " when it 

 took fire at all (which wasn't often), [it] 

 drawled off in an unwilling fuse instead of 

 leaping to meet the first spark." The joy 

 of feeling that the marks of the ball and 

 chain had worn off induced him to write, 

 "If I were a profane man, I should say, 

 ' Darn the College !' " Some mutterings of 

 similar import may occasionally be over- 

 heard in the vicinity of laboratories and 

 lecture rooms. The best teacher is not al- 

 ways an investigator, nor the best investi- 

 gator a teacher. The university should be 

 broad enough to provide for men of both 

 types and set each to work at that which 

 he does best. And yet, because of its in- 

 fluence upon the totality of the university 

 spirit, I believe that in the long run the 

 fruits of instruction will be choicest when 

 they have been ripened in the sunshine of 

 investigation. 



To what extent universities will be will- 

 ing to encourage investigation as a comple- 

 mentary obligation to their other functions 

 is largely a practical question ; it depends 

 upon naeans of support, it depends upon a 

 public spirit liberal enough to appreciate 

 and provide for its development in a spirit 

 of the husbandman who plants the tree 

 the fruits of which he shall not live to enjoy. 

 ' Serit arbores quae seclo prosint alteri.' 

 There are welcome signs that such a spirit 

 is not foreign to our civilization, and that 

 this is one of the respects in which the 

 twentieth century may be expected to ex- 

 ceed the achievements of the nineteenth. 



So far as I have attempted to crystallize 



my contribution to this symposium it may 

 be said to center about these points : In- 

 vestigation constitutes a motor or expres- 

 sive factor in education at a stage in which 

 that factor becomes particularly significant. 

 It occupies an important place in the uni- 

 versity by reason of its disciplinary value 

 in the direction of self-reliant activity. 

 The place of investigation in building up 

 the spirit that makes for the safest and 

 sanest progress is no less conspicuous. In- 

 vestigation for discovery is a function co- 

 ordinate in worth with other purposes of a 

 university, and is more likely than almost 

 anything else to keep the mind of the pro- 

 fessor from ' drawling off in an unwilling 

 fuse,' and to make it ready to leap to meet 

 the first spark. 



Joseph Jastrow. 

 Univeesity op "Wisconsin. 



It may be conceded in the beginning of 

 this discussion that a modern university is 

 an institution which devotes attention to 

 all subjects information upon which can be 

 systematized or reduced to a science, and 

 that it is constantly striving to extend the 

 boundaries of knowledge in every branch 

 of human inquiry. 



In its strictly educational function it de- 

 velops a proper conception of these subjects 

 in the minds of its students by the logical 

 and inspired presentation of certain basal 

 facts and underlying principles, with which 

 the learner may build up the mental edifice 

 representing the structural aspect of each 

 subject in its completeness or incomplete- 

 ness. 



With a fairly general agreement upon 

 these points it might be said that the sub- 

 ject for discussion is one which vitally con- 

 cerns the integrity of the universitj'^, and 

 any question of the abstract relation of the 

 university to investigation would imply a 

 most serious state of affairs. I take it for 

 granted, however, that the real theme for 



