THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATUEDAY. JANUARY 2, 1926. 



A POET-SCIENXIST. 



It has been said that a poet should 

 tent along with the scientist out on 

 the verges of the known as he ad- 

 vances into the terra incognita that 

 lies ever beyond— some one who can 

 interpret to the multitude what the 

 scientist is usually unable to make 

 known to the lay niind in its signifi- 

 cance or relationships. Sometimes, 

 however, though rarely, the scientist 

 is himself a poet, a duovir, who is able 

 to make patient original researches 

 in some field of the wide realm of na- 

 ture and who Is also adept in inter- 

 pretation and divination. 



Such a scientist is the present Pres- 

 ident of the American Association of 

 Science, Dr. Michael Idvorskt Pu- 

 pitr. He has risen to a foremost and 

 secure place in the physical science 

 whose patron saint, to him, was Jo- 

 seph Hbnrt. But any one who has 

 read Professor Pupik's autobiography, 

 or that briefer biography entitled "A 

 Herdsman's View of Human Life," 

 must know that he has also the poeti- 

 cal gift of a psalmist and the power 

 of a prophet to interpret visionsi Af- 

 ter describing his experiences as a 

 shepherd boy by night on the plains of 

 Serbia he continjies: , 



On such nights we were all eyes 

 and ears, catching every sound and 

 watching the stars, so as not to per- 

 mit that a single unguarded moment 

 separate us from our grazing 'animals. 

 The world of sound and of starlight 

 messages was the only world which 

 existed in our consciousness during 

 those watchful hours ; the rest of the 

 world had disappeared in the black- 

 ness of the night. It did not reappear 

 until the pale streamers of the early 

 dawn announced what we boys be- 

 lieved to be God's command: "Let 

 there be light!" And then gradually 

 the rising sun. as if by an act of 

 creation, diselosed to our anxious eyes 

 the gayly colored garment of the ter- 

 restrial world. Every one of those 

 joyous mornings of fifty years ago 

 made rne feel that I was witnessing 

 the creation of the world as it is 

 described In the first chapter of 

 Genesis. 



The scientist elected to succeed Dr. I 

 PupiN is, happily, also a man who ' 

 combines in one person the abilities 

 both of a scientist and an interpreter, 

 a poet— Dr. Liberty H. Bailet of 

 Ithaca, N. Y. He has written a num- 

 ber of scientific treatises and has been 

 dean of one of the greatest schools of 

 agriculture in the world. Lately he 

 has made an extensive and intensive 

 study in South America of the palm 

 tree. But he is perhaps even more 

 widely known for his writings about 

 nature for those who are not them- 

 selves scientists, but wish to know 

 more of the world about them. He 

 has even put some of his observations 

 and interpretations into verse. One 

 poem called " Outlook " presents his 

 view of human life. Dr. Bailet, as 

 many another of his generation, was 



j told in his early days that 



I In Adam's fall 



I We sinned all, 



but as he came to inquire of nature 

 he found tlie tribes of men ascending 

 " each from lower round " and in 

 turn predicting " uprising forms." 

 He refuses to blaspheme the perfect- 

 ing works of Gou. He sees no " blank 

 defeat " or " canker set against llie 

 heart." He sees some such " vista 

 vast " as Professor Moulton predicts 

 for the planet. He fears uoL to look 

 vv-hen he has eyes to see and " dread- 

 less " awaits his destiny standing 

 " within the cosmic sea." 



His immediate predecessors in tliis 

 high office have had to do vnth the 

 stars, the forces that are lending 

 themselves to man's use, and the psy- 

 chologj' of man himself. Dr. Bailey's 

 interest is in (lie earth on which and 

 out of which we live and man's rela- 

 tion to It. The title which he gave to ' 

 one of his books of essays suggests his 

 own attitude toward it, " The Holy 

 Earth," which the Creator after His 

 six days of creation pronounced to be 

 very good and whose " goodness " Dr. 

 Bailey still finds the ba.5ic fact in our 

 existence. 



