Indeed, it is curious to observe
how varied and how utterly different maybe the non-essentials, moral
and mental, of the beings to whom God has given the rare gift of power
to look into the secrets He has scattered around us in plant and earth
and animal life. Consistently with various grades of competence for
investigation, the man may be social, or may flee his fellows; may be
witty, or incapable of seeing the broadest fun; a poet, or almost
devoid of creative imagination; full of refinement and rife with
multiple forms of culture, or neither scholarly nor well-informed
outside of his especial line of work. According as he is endowed with
mental graces and forms of culture, apart from his science, will be
his charm as a companion; but while the absence of these means of
pleasing is sometimes met with, and while their lack in no wise
lessens his power of investigation, I have found most men of science
to possess in a high degree qualities which rendered them delightful
as comrades at the camp-fire or as guests at the dinner-table. Indeed,
the best talkers I know are men of science--not the mere students of a
knowledge already garnered, but those who discover new facts or who
spend their lives in original research. The most mirthful, cheery,
happy and liberal-minded of men are to be found in the limited ring of
those who are known in this country as investigators.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225