W. B. DWIGIIT. 67 



clergymen, doubtless without injury to their other work, 

 have contributed labors of value to science. 



Do you ask what scientilic specialty you shall select ? 

 I reply, first, one suited to your tastes and talents ; thus, 

 one having too little mathematical or mechanical skill 

 for the studies of physics or astronomy, might be very 

 successful as an accurate and patient observer of the 

 habits of animals. Again, select a specialty well suited 

 to your circumstances and vicinage ; and, yet again, as a 

 third suggestion, as to the choice of a topic for study, let 

 me remind you of a rule that the late Louis Agassiz laid 

 down for himself on this point. He looked through 

 libraries of scientific works, and where he found gaps on 

 the shelves — places where works were lacking on cer- 

 tain topics — those suggested to him his fields of labor. 

 Such gaps are still abundant. Much of cryptogamic life 

 all about us is little understood ; the minute organisms 

 that probably cause many blood diseases, are yet to be 

 resolved ; troops of undescribed insects run over our 

 hills ; there is not yet a single respectable descriptive 

 list of the spiders of a single state of our whole country. 



Do not, however, let your scientific aspirations begin 

 and end with the collecting and labelling of specimens. 

 While there is a scientific value in collections, carefully 

 made, yet, after all, there is very little of the scientist 

 about a mere collector. Scientific work requires that, 

 beyond the collecting of specimens, there should be the 

 studying of structure, habits, and principles of classifi- 

 cation, the comparison of fauna, the noting of unusual or 

 unrecorded phenomena ; and this implies the study of 

 the literature of the subject. 



I will close by remarking that there is a special work 

 for science, of which there is much need, for which some 

 residents of this city are well fitted, and to which I 

 earnestly invite their attention. Modern science can do 

 little without its tools ; these tools are books, instru- 



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