RESEARCH: A RETROSPECT1

INASMUCH as the prime object of Sigma Xi is to

encourage research by honoring those who possess

that rare and priceless gift which we designate as

research ability, it seems fitting on this occasion that

an attempt be made to illustrate the more important

of the varied qualifications essential to success in

this high calling.

Among the rare gifts which must be possessed in

greater or less degree, intellectual curiosity to know
and understand the universe may be singled out as
an absolute essential, because perhaps it is the real
motive which urges us to investigate. Indeed, may
we not say that curiosity is that elusive something
which causes organisms to evolve, that upward urge
which makes us forever unsatisfied with present at-
tainments. Given that inner urge which intellectual
curiosity supplies and even mediocre ability as an
observer or some intuition and imagination (attributes
which are prime essentials in inductive reasoning) or
ability to reason deductively, or all of these, and an
investigator is sure to result. Some have all these
gifts in a high degree and, if developed, the result
is an Aristotle, an Hipparchus, a Roger Bacon, a
Darwin, a Faraday or a Newton.

I shall take the liberty of first illustrating these
essential qualifications by a brief reference to a his-
tory of one of the most fascinating quests which has
ever led man to explore the unknown, namely the
problem of understanding the universe. In its larger
implication we mean by this the problem of finding
the position, motion and relationship of each part to
every other and the actions and interactions of every
conceivable and inconceivable kind between each and
every part, including man himself, his inner con-
sciousness and his spiritual nature,-a problem infinite
in its scope and in the sweep it allows to the imagina-
tion. Only a being divinely endowed, as is man,
with the possibility of infinite perfectability would
ever contemplate attempting such a task. The most.
highly gifted race which the world has known at-
tempted to solve this problem by direct assault. Per-
haps the most valuable lesson which the ancient
Greeks have given to mankind is that the fortifica-
tions must be gradually reduced before there is any
hope of taking the citadel. I shall, therefore, con-
fine my remarks to a brief outline of the history of
the progress which the human race has made in un-
1 Address to Sigma Xi Initiates at Cornell University,

May 15, 1925.