RECOGNITION FROM WITHOUT

It is the boast of most any scholar that he does not care for fame and studiously avoids publicity. It is a good boast. It reconciles the scholar to the actual circumstances of his position and enables him to construct and to maintain a standard of values which is of his own making. To feel his long studies hidden in his own breast, his thoughts at times revolving tumultuously there as though they were animated by the seed of truth and must therefore out, yet again subsiding in acknowledged error, and at the same time to see harvests of wealth and reputation won at first blush by those who could not wait to speak, yet lost upon the entrance of the next eager voice, this is, not perhaps to enjoy learning at all times, but to discover an unbroken path to continually greater wisdom. Restraint, seclusion, and observation are well-known watchwords of the simon pure student.

Yet the emotional, so-called "human side" of every man, even man, even of the scholar requires some satisfaction and the public, little is it may sympathize, deserves to be shown, now and again, what even its most secluded inhabitants have been doing. Most scholars are in the habit of reaching at least their scholastic confreres with their published opinions. Most are actually content with stopping here, content with fame among those who will study and preserve their works to another generation of students. By the time that this fame has been attained, moreover, long seclusion and advanced age has usually, deadened the empty, and impulsive desire for mere note. The scholar lives happily in the esteem of scholars.

There is, however, still one service left to perform which often others must perform for him, it is a service which might once have been a pleasure, even a triumph but now, through time, is a sacrifice and almost a desecration. It seems to cheapen. It is not always careful and discriminating, though in good hands it may be. It is the popularization of the man's name, the exposition of his works and wisdom for public consumption the creating of a "human" atmosphere about him, so that, though still not fully comprehended, scholarship may have a name in the land and an allurement that will draw men into its pursuit. Professor Alfred North Whitehed has long been established in scholarly fame. His publication of some memoires in the current Atlantic Monthly brings to the most sedate and contemplative portion of the reading public a sense of the unceasing and sensitive powers of observation and interpretation a man must possess to interpret life soundly. A wider, busier, and usually less concerned public will, however, be reached by a rebound of this article. The New Republic has given it a partial reproduction and a complete comment. Few from collegiate ranks revolve such recognition and those few are customarily publicists and administrators. More reflection in this manner of the scholar's world would assist in giving it in the eyes of the world the substance and variety it-truly possesses. The Atlantic Monthly and the New Republic might profitably join hands, more often.