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to modify his environment and make it fit to live in; second, to abandon 

 the environment and go into a better one. 



To what extent shall one make efforts to modify his environment, 

 to improve it? How early or how late shall one abandon efforts? These 

 are questions of varying importance in the life of all. There are many 

 factors to be considered. With some it is an easy matter to 'pull up stakes,' 

 as the race did in its pastoral stage. The very evolution of the race, from 

 a wandering life to one anchored, so to speak, to a city environment makes 

 it difficult for the average individual to leave the crowded city and go 

 back to the more primitive country life. We need only read the pathetic 

 letters of Mrs. Carlyle with her chronic illhealth in smoky London, but 

 with good health in her old country home in Scotland. She evidently 

 realized relationships and made many trips to and fro, but after being 

 accustomed to London life and meeting congenial people, it was next to 

 impossible to go back to the monotonous life in the country. We thus see 

 that physically she needed one sort of environment, that of the pure air 

 of the country; mentally she required the contact of kindred minds, to 

 be found in the large city. 



What we get out of a book depends largely on the interest with which 

 we take it up and on our previous knowledge. We get out of it what we 

 put in. A book in Greek or in Science will be understood by comparatively 

 few, in contrast to the many who read and understand a popular novel ; 

 even 'problem novels' are not always understood. By observing a man 

 turned loose in a large library one can arrive at certain conclusions. 



A biography may be so simple that most any reader can understand 

 it. The biography or life of a military man is full of descriptions of battles, 

 best understood by old soldiers ; the life of the musician is apt to be full 

 of technical musical matters and best understood by musicians ; the 

 scientist best understands the biographies of men of science. The indi- 

 vidual in chronic illhealth will likely be the most appreciative reader of 

 the biography of a man who had chronic illhealth — and the physician who 

 studies the subject from a biological standpoint will likely be the one 

 who not only appreciates, but understands such a life and the influence 

 of environment. 



If I can induce some of you to read biography in the light of environ- 

 mental influences, especially of such a man as Huxley, then I shall have 

 accomplished all I had in mind in beginning this paper. 



