February, ’20] 
O’KANE: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
45 
education. He is now to begin with books and to acquire knowledge. 
“You are going to study, now/’ we say, “and to learn.” 
“To learn what?” 
“Why, to learn many things; spelling and reading, addition and 
subtraction, all about the different countries and about history, and 
many other interesting things.” 
Thus is the great process started and thus it proceeds. As the years 
pass these matters expand and sub-divide. Arithmetic becomes 
algebra and geometry, geography grows into political economy. In 
due time these foundational studies are succeeded by the specialized 
subjects of college and graduate work. Presently, the round finished, 
the last laboratory period at an end and the thesis typed and bound, 
our young man enters his profession and takes up the daily life of a 
scientific worker. He has completed his equipment. 
This accoutrement of formal knowledge is what we usually mean 
when we mention the training possessed by a graduate ready to under¬ 
take a position. Naturally, it is the acquisition that our young man 
treasures as his principal qualification for the successful pursuit of 
his calling. Often, in combination with our particular record of 
experience, it is the measure by which those of us who are no longer 
beginners take stock of our possibilities in speculations on professional 
advancement. 
Now it would be idle to minimize the value and significance of 
fundamental and specialized knowledge in the training and 
equipment of the scientific worker. We all recognize its import¬ 
ance. Nothing else can take its place. Without it there can be no 
constructive planning of a life of scientific work. It is the string 
to the bow. 
But we shall be foolish if we think of this phase of equipment as the 
sole or even the major factor that has to do with advancement in a 
scientific career. It is but one of several. It is indeed one of the 
hinges on which may swing wide the door to success in life’s work. 
Perhaps it is the top-most hinge. But unless the others that rightly 
belong there are in place, skillfully made, well-fitted and properly 
oiled, the door will sag and will never open wide to the full and glorious 
vision that lies beyond. 
The scientific worker, like any other normal person, wishes to suc¬ 
ceed in his work. But how shall we define success? 
If in our definition we propose to lay hands on concrete and specific 
terms, no man may define success, except as it applies to him and to 
him alone—and not even then unless he is more skillful in analysis of 
his own personality and more deeply aware of the inner meaning of 
his surroundings than most of us can ever hope to be. For no two men 
