On the European
continent the same remark holds true, but in Europe this class is very
often less refined than with us. In England the same class is
undoubtedly notable for a curious absence of the wide range of general
information constantly found in America, so that English men of
science often amaze us in social life by their lack not so much of
culture, as of wide knowledge of matters outside of their own studies,
as well as by their inaptitude to share the lighter chat of the
dinner-table.
Even in Great Britain--and yet more in Germany and France--the habits
of life make it less of a sacrifice than here for men to abandon all
that money gives and to devote themselves to the quiet life of the
closet and the laboratory. Once set in a groove, the average man
abroad is less apt, to seek to rise out of it or depart from it; while
with us the constant flow of a too intensely active life is for ever
luring men with baits of greed to take the easy step aside from pure
science into the golden ways of gain. Honored be they in this land of
eager money-getting who withstand the temptation, and in quiet and
peace, undisturbed by the turmoil about them, pursue those noble
quests which give to humanity its highest training! What these men
lose we know: to them are neither great houses nor the hoards of
successful commerce.
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