644 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
atory seemed to him to be better fitted than anyone to appreciate 
his true value. Ramsay always forcefully maintained these ideas 
and their logical consequences. The fact is, although, to be sure, 
other factors enter into it, that the future of science depends in a 
large part on the scientific aptitude of those who cultivate it. The 
choice of future scholars — and by this word we mean principally 
the future masters, the future leaders — stakes on, then, a capital im- 
portance. Great then is the responsibility of those who have charge 
of making this necessary selection. They ought to realize the essen- 
tial fact that knowledge is good but power is better. Far be it from 
us indeed to deny the utility of much learning, of being well posted 
in every subject, as are the very learned; but this would be sterile 
and encumbering from the point of view of original research, sole 
source of progress, if there were lacking to exploit it a clear intellect, 
a sure judgment, and that ensemble of qualities which constitutes 
what is called " esprit de finesse." The true scholar, the real origi- 
nator of scientific progress, is not the one who knows, it is the one who 
acts, who creates. "Better," Montaigne has said, "a good brain 
than a full brain." The former has that which is called potentiality, 
latent force, virtual power, productive, and creative energy, which 
allows it on occasions to accomplish original work; the latter, in 
the absence of these necessary gifts, would have access only to the 
domains already largely explored, where it would, however, still be 
able to do useful work. Both have their places to fill ; but the gen- 
eral welfare as well as the interest of the specialist demands that 
each be in his place — " the right man in the right place." To keep 
this ideal in view ought to be the constant thought of those on whom 
has devolved the difficult role of arbiters. 
In our time of general reorganization, when all institutions and 
all methods are undergoing revision, it is to be regretted that the 
great voice of Eamsay is not more listened to in this important 
matter of teaching. 
Ramsay wrote but few didactic works. His little treatise on 
"Modern Chemistry," which has been translated into French, is a 
brief but substantial account of the principles of chemical philos- 
ophy. The same qualities are found in the highest degree in all 
Ramsay's writings. They are noted especially in several disserta- 
tions in which he developed his own ideas, and whose titles alone 
are enough to indicate their originality : " The Electron Considered 
as an Element," " Element and Energy," " Helium in Nature," " Prob- 
lems Presented by Inorganic Chemistry," etc. 
Ramsay was a polyglot and spoke fluently French and German. 
At the International Congress of Applied Chemistry held in Rome 
in 1906 he gave in French a lecture on " The Purification of Drain 
