February, ’20] 
O’KANE: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
53 
and the training of the imagination is, therefore, far the most important 
part of education. . . . Constructive imagination is the great 
power of the poet, as well as of the artist, and the nineteenth century 
has convinced us that it is also the great power of the man of science, 
the investigator, and the natural philosopher.” 
While the process of accumulating data is proceeding it is helpful 
to stop sometimes with the deliberate intent of withdrawing a sufficient 
distance from the object of inquiry to see it in perspective and to 
discover if its newly-ground facets may not catch some light from its 
surroundings. In the laboratory notes of Faraday are these words: 
‘‘Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws 
of nature. Let us encourage ourselves by a little more imagination 
prior to experiment. Let the imagination go, guarding it by judgment 
and principle, holding it in and directing it by experiment.” 
And finally, in the course of investigation, we find ourselves practis¬ 
ing that rarest of mental acts, suspension of judgment while our 
theories are standing the trial of deliberate test. It is a fine training. 
Men do not usually withhold their opinions in that fashion. Suspense 
is unpleasant to the human makeup. Continue the suspense long 
enough and there is relief in the drawing of a conclusion however 
hasty and ill-considered. Wrap the mental makeup in the mantle of 
likes and dislikes, prejudice, desire or habit, and deliberately suspended 
judgment becomes rare, indeed. To practice it is good discipline. 
And so, in following out these processes in the course of his daily 
work, the scientist may rightly feel the satisfaction that comes from 
doing worth-while things in a worth-while way and may readily find 
for himself the interest that goes with a program of exploration and 
adventure. There is no visible limit to the field. For every truth that 
was dug out of the darkness in the course of the nineteenth century, 
a hundred have seen the light in the twentieth. No one has ever 
reached the horizon of scientific work. As new rooms are added to 
the great edifice of science there are new, dim corners to be explored. 
Nor may we assume that all that we commonly accept now is neces¬ 
sarily true. Acceptance is not finality, even in the face of abundant 
proof. The earth was known to be the center of the universe until 
Gallileo and Copernicus discovered otherwise. Not many generations 
have elapsed since a professor in Harvard University proved that to 
telegraph to Europe beneath the ocean was impossible. 
In the classroom duties that fall to the lot of many of us there are 
extremes of contrast. The work may be made a dreary routine of bore¬ 
dom or it may be enlivening, interesting, inspiring. You will readily 
find examples of each. 
