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Show A SCIENTIST'S DEVOTION. But few can conceive the motive which causes the scientist to devote a weary life to the arduous duties of his chosen pursuit. Page after page of the writings of scientists reveals nothing but dry, unvarnished facts, unalloyed with anything which makes ordinary literature fascinating to the mind, or capable of carrying the attention with pleasing or novel incidents. The entomologist will devote pages to the description of one species of an insect of the most diminutive size. The paleontologist devotes years to the research of the hidden things of earth. Rocks are rent asunder and fossils extracted, the minutest differences are marked and classified till the fossil was well as the living animals have received distinguishing characteristics and been appropriated to the proper family, genus and species. It is a matter of wonder at first thought that men will spend a life-time on some small point in science. Their field is narrow, and their work when completed comprehends but a few facts for inquiring people. But still with untiring patience year in, year out, the process of investigation continues, till at last another truth has been discovered, or some fact established. There is something in the mind of man which delights in investigation and exults in discovering. Men would sit for hours trying to solve the crack brain puzzle of last winter. Cold, hunger and fatigue were forgotten in the effort to get the "13, 14, 15" rightly arranged; still the player or the world was no better for the prolonged effort. A man will persevere unceasingly over his game of solitaire till at last the numbers come out in the desired order, and yet he has profited nothing by his repeated trials and final success. It is this same principle which causes the thoughtless and uneducated to devote their time to the unraveling of puzzles and riddles, solving catch problems and working out games. But in the thoughtful mind the pleasure is directed towards purposes of more worthy aims, and results of a more useful nature. No matter what the surroundings, this desire is satisfied when investigation leads on from fact to fact till ultimately some great and beneficial principle has been adopted, based upon the truths discovered. No man takes greater delight in his works than the scientist. His reward comes when the long searched-for truth dawns upon him, and by the evidence of irrefutable testimony he compels the world to accept the discovery. It is not marvelous, then, that so many dry facts are culled from nature and that a small portion of our scholars continue to consecrate their life-long energies to the cause of science. And yet, no class of writing is affected more by the mutability of the times than writing on scientific subjects. It is true that a fact once established id good for all time. But so much pertaining to our sciences is yet unknown, and as each year adds new treasures to the store-house of knowledge, an author soon grows out of date, or his works must undergo constant revision. While there are a few writers who will probably remain authority in the different sciences, their number is limited to a few when compared to almost any other class of authors. - Hawkeye. |