394 Ethical Functions of Scientific Study^Chamherlin. 
he who here would bind the wings of thought is he who would 
restrain thought from its highest, its loftiest, its purest, its 
most sacred flights. 
The spirit of creative scholarship has yet another important 
function to perform in the fullness of its influence, the guidance 
and restraint of reformatory movements. It is but natural 
that when the consideration of an evil has become entrenched 
upon a mind, that it should magnify itself until it gradually 
mounts up before the view in its amplitude and shuts out the 
vision of other truths; and so the mind is led, in its warfare 
against a special evil, to overstep the bounds of just judgment 
in other relations and transgress the limits of wisdom and 
prudence. This danger becomes especially imminent when the 
evils to be reformed reside in others and not in ourselves. Re- 
formatory movements are herein liable to excess injurious to 
themselves and harmful to other interests that also demand 
consideration. These excesses do indeed direct attention more 
pointedly to the evils sought to be removed, but it is to be 
questioned whether this good compensates for the evil of the 
excess. Certainly to the scientific judgment any swerving from 
the truth falls under moral condemnation even though its pur- 
pose be reform, though its inspiration be moral enthusiasm, 
and though its efforts be directed against an acknowledged evil. 
Scientific thought postulates as a fundamental axiom that 
supremely laudable results are only to be reached by integrity 
of intellectual action in every particular, in every stage of pro- 
gress, and in every expression of enunciation. It assumes that 
men will be led to the acceptance of the better in thought and 
in action, more surely and more rapidly, in the end, by a precise, 
candid presentation of truth, than by exaggeration or undue 
emphasis. The dangers of reaction from an unwholesome 
enthusiasm and the bitter after-taste of an untruthful statement 
are thereby avoided. 
Turning for a moment to individual virtues it may be remarked 
that impartial devotion to truth antagonizes undue self-regard. 
The habit of impartial scrutiny must often reveal one's own 
weakness. The judicial attitude of mind forces one to step out 
from himself and view his own positions and personal relations 
in the same damaging light as those of others. All opinions 
stand alike before the true student. The opinions of yester- 
