William Jackson Humphreys

“ It is man's power of investigation and of discovery that enables him to bring the forces of nature to his aid, without which help he would perish wholly or at best live only as the beasts of the forest. It is science that makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, and this is basic, for by it we conquer in the struggle for existence. ”

“ It may not be practicable for many institutions to follow the lead of a certain excellent college—one that deserves the name university—and set aside a sum of money to help pay the expenses of its representatives at these meetings; but those who can do it will find this an investment that will repay an hundredfold, in enthusiasm, in efficiency and in productiveness.
Frankly, as a nation, and especially in certain sections, we Americans have not been, and are not now, doing our share of original work; not taking our part in the creation of new arts and the promotion of civilization. ”

“ Science, as just implied, is not an end within itself, at least not an important one, for it is the bringing of nature's forces to our service, the application of her laws to the development of useful arts, and not the abstract knowledge of the laws themselves, that chiefly concerns mankind; and, therefore, being cognizant of only its mediate benefactors, the public gives its laurels and its material rewards to the inventor and the manufacturer, rather than to the investigator and the scholar. ”

“ True because man to-day has more knowledge than ever before of the laws of the universe in which he is placed, and because this knowledge is power; the power by which he brings inanimate nature to his aid; the power that determines his efficiency and fixes his place on the scale of civilization. It is this knowledge, slowly gained through the ages, and his ability to use it, that raises man above the plane of the mere animal and gives him dominion over all the earth and its creatures. ”

“ Let us then humbly and honestly inquire what part we Americans as individuals, as communities and as a nation are taking in this the chief labor of the human race for its existence and for its betterment. The average individual, if he is honest with himself, is not likely to feel very proud of his own achievements or of those of his community, nor even satisfied with the earnestness of his efforts; and therefore as a nation we are not able to point with pride to the part we have taken in scientific investigations. ”

“ Wherever the president of an institution gives no hearty encouragement to first-class attainments, wherever creative ability is held to disqualify a man for a position in a university rather than to be the first essential, at that place is stagnation and death in all that stimulates the scholar to his noblest efforts, and at best only a lot of weary taskmasters driving to their unwilling grinds so many human phonographs that give back just what they have taken down of the words of another. ”

“ Some praise may very well be given to the manufacturer and a great deal more to the inventor, for the work of each is essential to the good of the public; but, after all, the real honor is due the investigator who, by patient research and keenness of insight, discovered the laws that made possible the invention and its uses. Only let some genius discover electrical waves and in time there will be devised many systems of wireless telegraphy, or let the mysterious X-ray and how to produce it be revealed and soon there will be hundreds of clever devices for its practical use. ”

“ The spirit of its community of course has more or less influence on the work of every university, but it is never of first importance, for each takes the institution in its midst for a model, and as no one rises to the level of his ideal, so too no community equals even in sterile scholarship, much less productive, that of its university. ”

“ Such a man, because of his love for his specialty, and because of his thoroughness, usually is an enthusiastic teacher and often an inspiring one—the highest qualification. He who is not a research man seldom induces the love of knowledge in others—blood doesn't come from turnips.
In the name of civilization and of human progress let no position that presupposes scholarship and offers the sacred privilege of doing work be filled save by him who recognizes that in this case opportunity means duty. ”

“ It matters not how firmly the man of affairs establishes some new and important industry, nor how readily the public accepts what he has to offer, whether the convenience of modern lighting, the facilities of wireless and of other methods of communication, or any of the thousands of things that steam and electricity can supply, every one traces back beyond the artisan and the financier to the oft forgotten investigator but for whose labors there would be occasion for neither, and even kings could not have as a luxury that which all the world now deems a necessity. ”

“ For schools, academies and colleges that confine themselves strictly to elementary work, creative scholarship on the part of the teachers is not so imperative, but, as the reputation of every institution is that of the work it does and no more, therefore, in the case of those that wish to justify their claims to the title of university, let every important chair, irrespective of the present or prospective quantity of graduate work, be filled only by a man who has contributed something to the advancement of his subject, and who is likely to continue doing so. ”

“ It is not very agreeable to have to admit this state of affairs, but only the ignorant fail to see their own faults, and only the coward refuses to admit them. The wise thing to do is to admit them frankly—at least to one's self—and the courageous thing is to begin promptly and persistently to do one's full duty as he sees it. ”

“ So delicately sensitive a thing as the creative instinct, the uncompromising devotion to truth, even though it conflict with fond notions, seldom thrives in a sectarian college, whether honestly sectarian, sectarian everywhere except in the catalogue, or only sectarian for advertising purposes. ”

“ However, the possible usefulness of an investigation is a point to be considered, if ever at all, in determining what question to take up and how to attack it, for the scientific genius investigates, as the poet writes, along any line that appeals to him. In a sense he can not help it, for to him research and experiment are life and happiness; he is still a boy who has never outgrown young life's curiosity and the joy of seeing new things, nor has he outgrown the stimulus of companionship, the necessity for playmates. ”

“ Don't set unprepared young men to doing worthless pieces of drudgery—counting the hairs on the end of a white kitten's tail it may be—and then, after cheating them of their time, try to humbug them into believing that they have been profitably engaged upon important investigations. Don't let research flourish for advertising purposes in the catalogue when there is nothing of it in the laboratory. Dishonesty and humbugery in scholarship and in education probably are the meanest, because the most injurious, of all forms of rascality ”

“ There remain the special laboratories of the Carnegie Institution that are an inspiration to all the world, but even here the investigator is not so free as is the university professor to follow whithersoever his tastes and his talents may lead, and, besides, even these laboratories have not the opportunity that the university has of fixing the lives of men, of molding public opinion and of determining the destiny of our country. ”

“ It is absolutely essential to our future progress, nor can this be emphasized too strongly, that we appreciate the inestimable value of pure research; that we realize the futility without it of every effort to advance, and the certainty with it of the creation of new industries, the finding of new comforts and the improvement of man's every condition: and it is equally essential that on realizing this we have the courage to act according to our convictions. ”

“ One more illustration; probably the best of all for showing the deplorable state of affairs at perhaps many an institution in all sections of the country, for there are echoes of it from every quarter. Not long ago the president of a leading southern university was charged with the troublesome duty of finding several new men for his faculty, and in the course of his inquiries let it be understood that a man with research aspirations and first-class attainments was not desired, and made the astonishing statement, in support of his position, that a research man is seldom ever a teacher. ”

“ America, as already stated, is not doing her share of creative work, and this inexcusable negligence is far more pronounced in the southern states than it is anywhere else, though no section is free from blame—no institution can claim to be ideal. This is not due to racial peculiarities, to want of material equipment, nor to an inordinate struggle for wealth, but chiefly to the atmosphere of the university, to the environment in which the university professor is placed and upon which he must depend for his daily intellectual stimulus. ”

“ If scholarship is worth while, if knowledge is of any value, and research productive of good, then this condition of affairs is utterly intolerable. The change to a better simply must and will be made, for no community high-minded, sensitive and capable as the south is will do anything other than welcome an honest description of things as they are, and then wherever not creditable set about to correct them. ”

“ The open-minded investigator would be wholly out of place, even miserable, in such an environment, and often, as in this particular case, is informed that his services are not wanted. Such institutions are of but little credit to any church and less to real scholarship. Science and religion are not on the same plane; they deal with totally different things by entirely different methods, and therefore can no more conflict or agree than mathematics can conflict with morals. ”

“ No man need believe there is nothing for him to do, nor no one to appreciate and help him—provided only that he will make it evident by his works that he deserves encouragement and would profitably use any material assistance.
For some lines of investigation, as every one knows, an expensive equipment is needed, but, as just explained, there are other things one may do, and besides that state is poor indeed that can not afford support to its university. ”

“ He has repeatedly heard papers, often excellent ones, written at northern universities by men of southern birth, but seldom, if ever, a paper by a northern man in a southern university.
This great inequality, even when the men are the same, in productive scholarship between the northern and the southern parts of our country can have but one explanation—difference in environment; and it explains too the inferior part we as a nation are taking in preparing the way for any real advance in civilization. ”

“ TO say that ours is the best age the world has ever known is to state a simple truth. Even though we can claim for literature no living Homer, nor Dante, nor Shakespeare; for art no Phidias, nor Michel Angelo, nor Rubens ”

“ But the case for us is far from hopeless; already here and there are signs of a true awakening, a realization that opportunity means duty. The past is not creditable, but the present bids us look confidently to the future when soon the sincere and capable alone will achieve success and recognition. ”

“ The physicist, for instance, if so inclined, can with but small expense take up the studies of atmospheric electricity, sky polarization, insolation, or any one or more of the many other interesting meteorological phenomena that are always with him, but which are not yet fully understood. In no other way could he add more to the advancement of his own subject, while at the same time he would be enriching the science of meteorology and thereby improving the art of forecasting. ”

“ The ideal man is one who has a sympathetic appreciation for all sciences and a minute knowledge of his own specialty—one who knows something about everything and everything about something, for nothing short of this can give that accuracy and that resourcefulness essential to the solution of difficult problems, nor that alertness and breadth of view so necessary to the detection and to the understanding of new phenomena. To be sure, the ideal man seldom is found, but it is better to hunt long for the ideally good, than, as sometimes seems to be the case, quickly to secure the ideally bad. ”

“ Good work has been done and is being done in an increasingly large amount, but on the whole, as a nation, we are not doing our duty in this respect, for our productiveness, relative to our numbers, falls far short of that of most of our mother countries, such as England, Prance, Germany and Holland, and besides many of the more important discoveries that we claim were made by men of foreign birth. ”

“ If a community in which a university is situated is without interest in matters of a scientific nature it is because the university itself cares but little for such things and does less.
As stated above, the south is the least productive of original work of any part of our country, and the fault lies at the doors of the southern universities—as the following several illustrations will make clear—the institutions whose duty it is to train by precept and by example. ”

“ The faculty of an isolated institution is itself in great measure isolated, and commonly the creative work one does in a desert, under the oppression of ennui, bears but little relation to what he can do when agreeably situated and surrounded by things intellectually stimulating. The investigator, imaginative like the poet, nervous and often overwrought, is sensitive, and, while easily elated, just as easily depressed ”

“ But before suggesting what, in the author's opinion, are some of the things best to do to render our scholarship more profound and more productive it may be worth while, though it is humiliating to admit it, emphatically to call attention to a few things not to do. Don't merit contempt by cheaply exploiting the scholar's noblest work. ”