BiOfted. Lib
D

181
T790.
1888

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

THE

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS

TO THE

EIGHTH LECTURE COURSE

AT THE

ALBANY

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY,

DELIVERED '

WILLIS G. TUCKER, M. D., PH. D.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY.

PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS.

ALBANY, N. Y.
1888.

THE

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS

TO THE

EIGHTH LECTURE COURSE

AT THE

ALBANY

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY,

DELIVERED OCTOBER i, 1888,

WILLIS G. TUCKER, M. D., PH. D.

PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY.

PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS.

ALBANY, N. Y.
1888

Q

T71X,

ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN :

Standing in this place this evening, to fulfill the same
pleasant duty which twice before has fallen to my lot, the feel-
ing of embarrassment which I might otherwise experience is
lessened by the recollection that of those now gathered here
scarce any w«re present on the former occasions. What there-
fore seems to me like repetition, the place, the occasion, and
some things that I must necessarily say being the same, will
have for most of you a certain novelty at least, and this thought
reassures and reconciles me to the position in which I am
placed. And aside from this sole consideration, the duty as-
signed me is a very pleasant one. To welcome back our old stu-
dents ; cordially to greet those who for the first time are as-
sembled here, and to address to you some words of counsel,
and some general considerations concerning the work in which
we are all, in one way or another, engaged, is indeed a grateful
task, and free from any elements but the pleasantest. Most
gladly, therefore, do I, as a representative of the faculty, wel-
come you to the Albany College of Pharmacy. You are here
with a common purpose, and as workers in the same field have
the same end in view. Your object, if I understand it aright, is
to supplement the knowledge you have acquired in your calling
pursued as an art, by a course of study in which general princi-
ples occupy the first and most important place. You desire to
broaden your knowledge by basing it upon a firmer foundation.
The scientific or theoretical side of pharmacy as distinguished
from its practice is mainly to engage your attention. Facts
are to be acquired, but principles are to occupy an important
place henceforth in your work.

Every natural change which takes place has an antecedent
cause, and the scientific worker seeks to distinguish these causes,
and from them to develope general principles and laws. With-
out a knowledge of these laws and an understanding of the

706060

relations of different classes of facts and their bearing upon
each other, and without an orderly arrangement or classification
of the whole, there is no science. A lack of this knowledge
distinguishes the artisan from the scientist, and an appreciation
of this distinction is essential to those who desire to become
proficient in any branch of science. You are here chiefly to
pursue your studies from this scientific side, and with some of
vou it will be but a beginning and with others the continuation
of a course which, in the very nature of things, can never be
completed. The domain of the unknown is, to the wisest, so
vast, and of the known, to most of us, so small that although we
are never to be discouraged by the extent of the former, and
thus tempted to neglect the opportunities presented to us for
extending the latter, it nevertheless behooves us to place a
modest estimate upon our powers, and not to be discouraged if
in our eagerness and haste we fail to reach the goal that our too
enthusiastic fancy may have set before us.

Knowledge is acquired chiefly in two ways. From the first
dawning of intelligence the child gains his by observation and
experiment, and this we may call the experimental method.
Didactic instruction has no place in the education of the young
child who acquires his knowledge by the exercise of his own
faculties and through the sensations, directly conveyed to his
mind, which he experiences. Gradually the child comes under
the care of tutors and governors, and by too many educators a
systematic course of teaching by means of books and verbal
precepts is substituted, early in life, for a more natural and ra-
tional method. The child is required to reason at an age when
the reasoning faculties naturally lie, and should be allowed to
lie, dormant, and the quick perceptions, ready intuitions, natural
observations and retentive memory of the young pupil are
neither trained as they should be nor directed in any useful
channel. Rousseau perceived this most clearly more than a
century ago, and in his "Emile," a book of great originality,
abounding in good sense and deep insight, though mixed with
much that is exaggerated and meretricious, he depicts with
great force the evils resulting from the then universal methods
of instruction, and shows us in the person of Emile how he
would have a child educated. Nothing is to be taken on faith ;
the pupil is to be told nothing that he can discover for himself;
he is to accept nothing as truth on the mere say-so of another

if he can make the demonstration for himself ; his faculties are
to be trained and developed, not forced — in other words, there
is to be no cramming. Disgusted with the pedantry of the in-
structors of his day, and enthusiastically advocating a more ra-
tional method, Rousseau was an extremist, and his theories are
often impracticable, and his views one-sided and exaggerated,
but though his book was fiercely attacked and bitterly de-
nounced, it contained too much of truth to be borne down by
mere invective, and its effect was far-reaching, and has lasted
long. Much that his Emile contains, which raised a violent op-
position when it first appeared because so new and so radically
different from received ideas, seems to us to-day quite common-
place, because so evidently true and so generally accepted.
Basedow, and Pestalozzi, and Froebel, were followers of Rous-
seau, and their writings gained for those of their predecessor a
wider audience than otherwise they would probably have se-
cured. To them chiefly we owe our Kindergarten systems and
object-lesson teaching, and Pestalozzi's romance of Leonard and
Gertrude may be read with great profit by educators to-day.
The good that these deep-thinkers and clear-seers have done,
and the effect of their work upon educational methods at home
and abroad, can hardly be overestimated. Herbert Spencer, in
his admirable essays upon education, re-states and emphasizes
much for which they labored to secure a hearing more than a
century ago, and the effect of their teaching is seen in the meth-
ods now pursued in our schools for the young, and in a scarcely
less degree in our higher institutions. The general introduction
of the laboratory method of instruction in our academies and
colleges shows that the youth of to-day are no longer expected
to learn from books and lectures alone, but are taught to inves-
tigate, to prove the truth of fundamental propositions, and to
think for themselves after they have learned to reason. Thus
are the observing and reasoning faculties trained, the habit of
original thought developed, creative work becomes possible,
and original investigation a not uncommon pursuit. Doubtless
when we survey the past, we are ready freely to admit that
"there were giants in the earth in those days." The Keplers
and Newtons, the Lavoisiers and Davys, may not be easily
matched if we call the roll of learned men to-day, but never-
theless it is true that there never was a time when so large a
number of the community were so well educated, and so well

fitted to employ the machinery of modern scientific methods as
at the present time. The chasm formerly existing between the
educated few and the ignorant masses, is no longer so deep,
while the few have become the many, the masses having been
raised from their blindness and ignorance by modern educa-
tional methods and modern civilization.

Now the other method, which we may call the didactic, dif-
fers radically from the experimental, and in extolling the one,
we are not to lose sight of the fact that the other, rightly used,
has been and must ever continue to be of the greatest service
in education, and that we cannot separate them without work-
ing irreparable injury. But it was the mistake of the older
pedagogues to suppose that youthful ardor and freedom of
thought should be repressed, and a blind allegiance to authori-
ty demanded. In many countries the Church and the Univer-
sity were one, and a slavish obedience to the behests of the for-
mer, and a conservative following of the leaders of the latter,
were alike expected and demanded of those who sought in-
struction at these seats of learning. We cannot now pause to
trace the history of the conflicts thus early engendered between
religion and science, nor to show how purely dogmatic was
most of the teaching of the last few centuries, but despite the
bondage in which thinkers were held, there appeared from time
to time daring innovators who pushed their inquiries in every
direction, and though their books were burned, and they them-
selves often forced to recant for fear of a like fate, yet the
world moved, truth survived, and knowledge increased among
men. And is it not a painful fact to contemplate, that after all
these years, much of this blind allegiance to authority should
still remain among us, exercising as it does an influence truly
baneful in retarding the general acceptance of evident truths.
Astronomy has long since demonstrated that the earth is not
the center of the universe ; geology has long since demonstra-
ted that the earth was not formed and fitted for man's occupancy
in six days' time, but the scarce less certain truths of evolution
are combated as fiercely by certain classes in our midst to-day
as when they were first promulgated. Such a condition, with
its many attendant evils, results from a too dogmatic teaching,
and any system of education which fails properly to combine
these two methods of instruction, of which we have been speak-
ing, is one-sided and incomplete. Rousseau, in the work to

which we have referred, says, speaking of the pupil : " Let
him know a thing because he has found it out for himself, and
not because you have told him of it. Let him not learn science
but discover it for himself. If once you substitute authority
for reason, he will not reason any more ; he will only be the
sport of other people's opinions." There is sound sense here,
but the idea may be pushed too far, as in saying with reference
to the facts of physics : " I would not have my pupil study
them in a laboratory of experimental physics. I dislike that
array of machines and instruments. The parade of science is
fatal to science itself. There are many excellent labor-saving
methods of studying science, but we are in sore need of one to
teach us how to learn them with more effort of our own. So
many instruments are invented to aid us in our experiments,
and to supplement the action of our senses, that we neglect to
use the senses themselves. If we surround ourselves with in-
struments, we shall no longer find them within ourselves."
These are, of course, extreme views. There is truth here, but
his condemnation of methods which may be abused, is much
too general and sweeping. However desirable it may be to cul-
tivate the habit of close observation, experiment with self-de-
vised apparatus, and deduction of principles from self-discover-
ed facts, — and no one can for a moment doubt the necessity for
training of this sort, — yet a pupil restricted to this kind of per-
sonal investigation would make but slow progress, and unless
possessed of more than ordinary ability, scarce any progress at
all. We must accept much on authority, — at least, in certain
departments of learning this can safely be done, — and unless
we make free use of the facts discovered by others, our advance
will indeed be small. In many subjects of study the real work
begins at the point where others have left off, and the student
must as speedily as possible acquaint himself with all that has
been learned in his particular department, and make use of
every means within his reach to acquire this knowledge as
speedily and as easily as possible. Hence the value of the li-
braries, collections, and mechanical equipment of our higher in-
stitutions, is inestimable, and laboratory instruction in all de-
partments of science is to-day regarded as absolutely essential
in our courses of instruction. Says a recent author, speaking
of the intellectual methods of science, and what is said applies
with equal force to instruments of research, — " Scientific meth-

8

ods bear the same relation to intellectual progress that tools,
instruments, machines, and mechanical contrivances of all
sorts, bear to material progress. They are intellectual contriv-
ances, indirect ways of accomplishing results far too hard for
bare-handed unaided intellectual strength. As the civilized
man has little or no advantage over the savage in bare-handed
strength of muscle, and the enormous superiority of the former
in accomplishing material results is due wholly to the use of
mechanical contrivances or machines, even so in the higher
sphere of intellect, the scientist makes no pretension to the pos-
session of greater unaided intellectual strength than belongs to
the the uncultured man, or perhaps even to the savage. The
amazing intellectual results achieved by science are due wholly
to the use of intellectual contrivances or scientific methods.'
The student, therefore, cannot afford to dispense with these
aids. He cannot investigate every question from the outset
himself. If he would accomplish anything, he must possess
himself of the accumulated wisdom of those who have preceded
him in his own field, and he must bring to bear in his work
every known resource by which he may increase his powers and
extend his sphere of operations. The longer he can make the
working arm of his lever, the greater advantage will he derive.
That great results have been achieved by simple means, proves
nothing to the contrary, and he who would advance the world's
knowledge to-day has need to use every aid that modern inge-
nuity can give him.

If then we inquire what should be the nature of a rational
course of instruction, shall we not reply that it must be one in
which the pupil shall be taught to observe, to experiment, and
to think for himself, and shall be encouraged to push his in-
quiries without check in any direction, and that to the end that
he may be able so to do, it shall furnish him with those varied
aids which experience has shown to be serviceable in the prose-
cution of his studies and the extension of his researches. We
must, in other words, combine the experimental and the didac-
tic. We must teach many matters of fact with authority, but
we must so train the pupil that he will not blindly follow the
teacher, but shall be able critically to examine the facts pre-
sented for his acceptance, and weigh the evidence upon which
they rest, and more than all be fitted to carry forward the work
which others have begun.

Now lest it be said that such an outline applies mainly to
a course of scientific instruction, we remark that the methods
which are applicable and to be recommended in such a course,
are in the main those which may be followed with advantage in
the pursuit of knowledge in any direction. Knowledge is ad-
vancing along many different lines, but the greatest progress is
after all being made in the study of nature. The physical sci-
ences during the last half century have been developed to an
extent not dreamed of in the past, while metaphysical studies
have been relegated to a subordinate place, and some of these
studies have made little or no progress during the centuries
The reason is not hard to find. We have learned to distinguish
those things which may be known from those which are, from
their very nature, unknowable ; that which may be proved
from that which is always in dispute, and we have learned to
separate those collections of clearly related facts which may be
systematically arranged, and from which general principles and
laws may be deduced from those unwieldy masses of half-
truths which may be differently viewed from any standpoint,
and which can never be brought together in compact form, or
scientifically treated. Underlying the physical sciences is a
substratum of facts from which we derive laws, but in most of
those studies which are commonly classed under metaphysics
using the term in its broadest sense, we find no corresponding
basis of universally accepted truths, and as the workers in such
branches are seldom agreed as to the meaning of the very terms
which they employ, exact discussion becomes well-nigh impossi-
ble. Take theology, for instance. I speak not of practical re-
ligion, but of the science so called, and what do we find but
that the theologians are each from his own standpoint, and
with all the bias which inherited beliefs or irrationally adopted
creeds give, discussing fundamental propositions which have
been argued for centuries, and concerning which scarce two dis-
putants are in accord. Nothing is farther from my purpose
than to speak slightingly of religious beliefs which have in one
form or another been held by all nations and at all times, — be-
liefs that have influenced the life and made for righteousness, —
for I refer alone to theology as treated in the schools, where ar-
guments are based on propositions incapable of proof, and terms
to which no fixed meaning can be assigned are used as if capa-
ble of logical employment and with scientific precision. The

10

result has ever been the same, — no agreement, but ever widen-
ing diversity ; fierce onslaught and bitter rejoinder. When will
those who thus dispute learn to distinguish between those fields
in which scientific methods may be employed, and those wide
domains in which, while room exists for speculation, dogmatism
should have no place. So many things in these days force
themselves upon our attention, that we shall do well so to train
our faculties that we may see clearly the difference between
those which will repay investigation, and those which give no
promise of reward. But we too often credulously accept what-
ever is put forth with a show of learning, no matter how
sophistical the arguments, nor how false the premises on which
it is based. We have no need to go back to the idle specula-
tions of past ages for illustrations. Look around, and you may
find on every hand dupes of mere charlatans by the score, and
believers in every kind of humbuggery, and these often among
people otherwise of fair intelligence, and neither illiterate nor
inexperienced in the ordinary affairs of life. Some of the
isms which have recently been urged and discussed, count
among their votaries men and women occupying high places in
society, in the church and in the state, and the explanation of
a fact, otherwise so surprising and so discouraging, is that these
people have neither a real love for truth, nor knowledge of the
way by which truth may be discovered. They accept with
equal readiness guides true and false ; they have not learned to
weigh evidence for themselves, nor to distinguish between the
blatant claims of charlatans and established facts ; they fail to
see that in their very essence some things are absurd, incapable
of proof, or unworthy of investigation. In other words, their
credulity results not so much from a lack of intelligence as from
a faulty education, and especially from a want of scientific train-
ing, and I have thought that it might be profitable for us briefly
to consider this evening some of the methods of science, since
these have been of such service to mankind in the search for
truth. They are capable of wide application, and their practice
tends to clear thinking and good workmanship ; and surely the
ability to think clearly and to work well is worth cultivating in
any calling. Especial reference will be made to the methods
employed in the study of the physical sciences, and it will be
my endeavor to point out some of the characteristics of good

11

scientific work, and to exhibit something of the spirit which
instigates and controls the scientific worker.

And first, all truly scientific work aims at exactitude. The
great majority of people are hopelessly inexact. It is true that
in dealing with dollars and cents, business men, and indeed
most men, are precise in their reckonings, but in a thousand
and one other things they are careless as to matters of fact.
If we look carefully at this matter, we shall find that many of
the annoyances of life come from a carelessness in this respect
— a want of accuracy. The habit has not been cultivated. Now
workers in any scientific field know full well the necessity for
preciseness. Terms must be correctly used ; observations must
be made with precision, and facts must be truly stated. Look
at the scientific papers in a journal or volume of transactions
which publishes the result of original investigations, and ob-
serve how concise the language, how precise the statements.
There is no diffuseness in the style, no approximations nor
guess-work where exact statement is possible. Accuracy as a
habit is opposed to all slovenliness, and to all hap-hazard meth-
ods of statement and of work. Young men before entering
upon other business pursuits are often placed in banks that they
may learn with what rigid exactness money is handled and ac-
counts are kept, and with a view to a similar kind of training
in another direction, I would have students who propose follow-
ing professions make thorough study of some one of the natu-
ral sciences, acquiring in the laboratory, museum or work-room
the habit of exact observation and precise measurement and
statement in such way that it will stick to them for life. And
surely there is no calling in which this habit is more essential
than in that in which you are engaged. Study the United
States Pharmacopoeia, and observe the preciseness of statement
throughout, and yet in the following of its explicit directions
how many mistakes are made. A single illustration will suffice.
I have recently examined a large number of samples of diluted
acetic acid procured from retail drug stores in different parts of
this State. It is not a very important preparation, perhaps, but
It is a very simple one, and easily made, according to the direc-
tions of the Pharmacopoeia, by dilution of the stronger acid,
and yet of these samples not one quarter were properly made,
the remainder varying from a third to five times the proper
strength. In the preparation of such an article, absolute pre-

12

cision is not required, though there should be a fair degree of
accuracy, but of these samples many were evidently "made
by guess." The pharmacist who has learned to work with
measuring flask and burette, with hydrometer and chemical
balance, will never guess at a thing, but where measurements
are demanded he will make them with care, and in general*
where there are two ways of doing a thing, he will instinctively
choose the right one, and such work may be depended upon.
Pharmacopoeial terms, and pharmaceutical terms generally, he
will use correctly, and he will deem it of more importance to
be right than to be rapid in his work. If young men knew how
highly this habit of accuracy, which is really but another name
for truthfulness, was valued, they would cultivate it more,
prompted by self-interest, if by no higher motive.

And next, science is painstaking. Real truth being sought,
the surest way by which it may be discovered is followed, and
not the easiest. The work in hand is well considered, and from
all points of view ; difficulties are recognized and not put out of
sight ; methods are weighed and the best selected, and after
this deliberate preparation the real work begins. That " haste
makes waste " no man recognizes more clearly than the scien-
tist, and in the hope of accomplishing much he is willing, not
to risk much, but to do much. He does not turn aside from the
main road in the hope of luckily discovering some short cut,
but is content with slow steps and short stages if so it be that
he is advancing. He does not expect great results from small
expenditures, but knows that time, energy, painstaking care
must be bestowed upon work which is to be valuable and lasting.
This is the scientific method, and from it we may learn a lesson.
The big oak grows from the little acc.rn, but the acorn repre-
sents the fruitage of a preceding oak which had its beginnings
in the distant ages of the past. Great results may succeed
small events, though they have not been caused by them
Good work goes into honest goods, and if we are to accomplish
much we must do much.

But this painstaking labor is repugnant to most men. They
are unwilling to labor, and must have quick results. They have
need, perhaps, to study some subject, and they skim the mere
cream of it. They are ignorant, and ask for information, and
before the explanation is given they have ceased to listen.
Their attention is not concentrated upon the matter under con-

13

sideration. "Inattention to the present business, be it what it
will," said Lord Chesterfield, " is the never-failing sign of a
little, frivolous mind." And this shiftlessness, so characteristic
of many men, is the result of habitually dealing with the sur-
face only of things through unwillingness to dig patiently down
to the roots of them. Such go from subject to subject, and, in
the zeal for novelty, lose the relish for wholesome knowledge.

And what has been said necessarily implies that scientific
work is laborious work. Foundations are laid deep and great
preparations are made for great work. Read the lives of
Cuvier, of Agassiz, of Darwin, and you will learn what dili-
gence is. In their works you will find the results of hundreds
of laboriously conducted observations summed up in paragraphs.
Such men have never shrunk from labor, for it has been to them
a necessity and become a pleasure. The habit of systematic
work developes a love for labor, and as we observe the fruits of
our planting we view them without a thought of regret for the
toil expended in the preparation of the ground, the sowing and
the tending, though done in the sweat of our brows.

And this painstaking labor which distinguishes scientific
work is marked by a patience no less characteristic. The
worker does not look for quick returns, but patiently awaits
the issue ; and so must we all, the student and the professional
man, the artisan and the artist, — each must work patiently and
thoughtfully, content if in due season he achieves the result
which long ago he planned. And if we read biography aright
we shall learn that the men of great deeds in every age have in
patience possessed their souls. Learn then to look, not for
quick results and great, but to labor hopefully, patiently, know-
ing that in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

And again, the truly scientific worker is governed by a
judicial spirit. He is accustomed to weigh evidence and strives
to consider all questions impartially. He holds his judgment
in abeyance, avoids unwarranted conclusions and hasty gener-
alizations. Mere authority has little weight with him upon
matters concerning which he is competent to form an opinion,
and before he accepts new ideas he familiarizes himself with
the evidence alleged in their support, recognizing the fact that
there are two sides to almost every question, and that a con-
clusion can seldom be reached till both have been considered.
He is therefore always open to conviction, and never ashamed

14

to acknowledge himself in the wrong when shown that he is in
error. To support a theory he will neither close his eyes to
obvious facts nor persist in maintaining untenable positions.
Those paper philosophers, as they have been called, who spend
their lives reviewing other men's work and criticising that which
they are unable rightly to comprehend, have no appreciation
whatever of the methods of science. Such men abound. We
find them on the lecture platform and in the pulpit, and their
effusions occupy much space in the magazines and reviews.
While the real scientist is often willing to say, " I do not know,"
" It is out of my line," " I am not an authority," these superfi-
cial essayists and shallow critics are ever ready to render de-
cisions and pass their judgment upon the weightiest matters.
But too often these ingenious partisans, with their specious
arguments and fallacious reasonings, their rhetorical vaporings
and heated arguments, carry the multitude along with them.
As an illustration, we have only to recall the bitter denuncia-
tion heaped upon Darwin and the ridicule to which he was sub-
jected a few years back, and how often do we hear Huxley and
Tyndall and Herbert Spencer disposed of by those who have
scarce read their writings, and, if they had, would be quite in-
competent to form an opinion upon them. Many of these
critics of other men's performances are ever ready to declare to
us the intentions of the Almighty, and to denounce as heretical
or impious that which, in their view, is inconsistent with what
they declare to be His plans. True science is not thus arrogant
nor dictatorial. It is honest, even in its doubts. To persist in
viewing a subject from one side alone, and to close the eyes
to demonstrated truths is as dishonest as it is illogical and
absurd.

And another characteristic of real scientific work is that it
is not inspired by a desire for gain ; it does not seek pecuniary
reward. I anticipate your probable criticism. All honorable
work deserves compensation, you will say ; surely the laborer
is worthy of his hire ; wealth honestly amassed, and worthily
employed is not to be despised. Very true, and yet the fact re
mains that the best work is not undertaken solely for the pur-
pose of securing a direct pecuniary return. At all events, the
best scientific work is not so entered upon. There lies at the
root of it all the desire to discover facts, to advance knowl-
edge, and in the search for verities the earnest worker is indif-

15

ferent to their practical value or worth in dollars and cents.
The benefits which the world has received from the discoveries
of science are inestimable, but very seldom has it happened
that the discoverers has been directly rewarded. A class of
middlemen exists, a kind of rear-guard of science, ever on the
alert to seize upon those ideas which can be turned to practical
account and made to pay, and this class, often very enterprising
and useful to society, secures the profit and often much of the
credit of discovery as well. I do not desire to hold up to your
view the great names upon the roll of fame of those who have
labored in poverty, often neglected or dispised, to lay the foun-
dations of our knowledge, for there would be little in the recital
to encourage or to incite us to like exertions, but I do desire to
impress the fact that unless the work we do is inspired by other
and higher motives than a mere desire for gain, we shall
never develope our best powers or exercise the noblest faculties
of our minds. If the question with us ever is, "Will it pay ?"
and if we reject all toil as drudgery which does not promise
quick reward, we shall assuredly do much that is trivial, per-
haps something that is base, and shall probably leave undone
work that might have led to higher things and had a real value.
And the last characteristic of real scientific work of which I
shall speak is that it is conceived in enthusiasm and executed in
hopefulness. Unless the laborer in this vineyard is possessed
by a real zeal, his measure of success will be small. His should
be, not the too sanguine visionary expectancy prompting to a
belief in the miraculous and imbued with credulity, but an
hopeful enthusiasm which will not be dismayed by the ob-
stacles it must necessarily encounter, and ever prompts to per-
sistent effort and unremitting toil. Real science is, while pa-
tient, hopeful, not over-sanguine but confident. And are not
these the qualities which workers in any field must possess, if suc-
cess is to be looked for ? If work is to be to us more than a mere
means for supplying our daily necessities ; if it is to develope
the workman's powers and raise him above the mere routinist's
level, the daily toil, however humble it may be, must be under-
taken with confidence and pursued with a real ardor. The man
who sets not before him some high standard, who looks not for-
ward to some ideal condition to which he strives to attain, who
does not long to rise, but is content merely to exist, has caught
no glimpse of the possibilities of life. Men talk of talents and

16

opportunities, of advantageous positions and lucky chances in
life, but after all life is to each of us very much what we choose
to make it, and the fact that few attain to positions of com-
manding eminence or achieve extraordinary results, affords no
excuse for half-hearted labor, or listless indifference to the vast
interests of life, for if we take a large view of its possibilities
and of the returns which labor brings, we shall at least have
started aright, — success lies in that direction. Says Lowell,
" Life is a sheet of paper, white,

Whereon each one of us may write -

His word or two, and then comes night.

Greatly begin ! though thou have time

But for a line, be that sublime —

Not failure, but low aim is crime."

These then are some of the methods of science, some of the
characteristics of scientific work. In considering them, my de-
sire has been to exhibit something of the spirit which instigates
and directs such work ; to show the value of scientific training
in the conduct of our daily affairs, be they what they may, and
the consequent advantages which result from giving to the study
of science a prominent place in our educational systems. For,
surely, if exactitude or a love for truth ; painstaking, patient
labor, actuated by higher motives than a mere desire for gain ;
a spirit of judicial fairness, and a hopeful enthusiasm, are habits
or qualities of mind which it is desirable to cultivate, then the
study of some branch or branches of science, rightly pursued, is
capable of yielding the most valuable results, and developing
the best and highest powers of the mind, fitting it to deal with
the ordinary affairs of daily life, or to grapple with the deep-
est problems which engage the attention of mankind. In the
hints which I have given you there is, I am well aware, nothing
that is new, nothing original. "All truly wise thoughts," says
Goethe, " have been thought already thousands of times, but to
make them truly ours we must think them over again honestly,
till they take root in our personal experience." To see truths
clearly, does not suffice. We must live them, make them our
own, be governed by them, and only when we thus do, are our
lives ordered aright.

Allow me, in conclusion, again to extend to you all, on behalf
of the trustees and faculty of this school, a hearty welcome.
We earnestly hope that the coming session may be a profitable

17

one to every member of the class, and that at its close you may
be able with satisfaction to look back at the course you have
pursued, feeling that your time has been well spent, that true
progress has been made, that no opportunities for self-improve-
ment have been neglected. For individual gain must always be
by the voluntary improvement of self. Teachers are of no
avail, institutions are powerless, educational facilities are of no
service, unless there is within, the ambition and the determina-
tion which stimulates to continued effort. Unless a man real-
izes in the truest sense that to raise himself is as much within
his power as to debase himself, to correct existing faults as easy
as to acquire new ones, and that to develope and strengthen
character lies as clearly within the range of his abilities as does
the volitional abandonment of high principles, and the giving
way to those impulses which spring from the lower nature, ever
to be subdued, he will never rightly begin to live, nor achieve
that true success which is within his grasp. We must have
high ideals and lofty standards, but no mere exercise of the
emotions, resulting in spasmodic effort, exhausting itself and
speedily relaxed, can take the place of that indwelling con-
sciousness of power to govern ourselves, and that confidence in
self which, lying deep within the heart, prompt to action and
are the inspiration of life. " There is none of the social
goods," says Emerson, "that may not be purchased too dear, and
mere amiableness must not take rank with high aims and self-
subsistency." Self-confidence begets great undertakings and
carries them to a successful termination. Without it we are at
the mercy of the world, discouraged by failure when we should
be borne upward by hope. Strive then to strengthen this confi-
dence, which perhaps in no way can so surely be done as by ac-
cepting fearlessly the responsibilities which we may be called
upon to assume. Excessive physical strength comes often with
the need for its exercise, and still more certainly will the m-an
willing to rise with the emergency find himself endowed with
power to perform the task put upon him. " Act well at the
moment," says Lavater, " and you have performed a good ac-
tion to all eternity." By timidly holding aloof from the present
duty we may miss the golden opportunity, but by courageously
putting our shoulder to the wheel when we are called upon to
labor we strengthen ourselves for future exertion and achieve

18

the real successes of life. "There is a tide in the affairs of men
which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," but the occasion
neglected may never return. Accustom yourselves then to per-
form the duties and meet the obligations of life manfully and
with confidence, and when the critical moment comes — the
time when upon the decision you make much may depend —
you will not be found wanting.

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