true," says Professor Nef, "to a great extent that the power of scientific investigation is inborn and not acquired, it is also certain that a proper atmosphere must exist for its development. It requires inspiration and example to kindle into flame the spark which may exist in men beginning their life-work."
The influences of departmental clubs, with their learned papers and discussions, is a factor making for critical scholarship. Another agency that promotes the acquisition of the scientific method is the Seminar. As it is only a recent growth in American universities, a fuller description of it is needed.
The professed aim of the Seminar is 'initiation into the methods of research.' To the scientist life presents itself as a series of problems, and these problems are to be grappled with and solved. The right way of attacking these problems the graduate student learns in the Seminar by contact with trained workers. He must get a first-hand acquaintance with his subject, whether literary, historical or scientific, by going to the sources. He must learn from instructors the recognized tests and principles of investigation and then apply them. He must learn to suspend judgment until full information is obtained.
Under the Seminar system the members meet once a week for a two-hours' session, usually Monday afternoons. The student works largely by himself, spending weeks or months gathering material for a report, which is subjected to criticism by other members of the Seminar and by the professor in charge. Thus he learns what defective work is. While patience and industry are necessary for the production of a satisfactory report, it is not enough 'to lead laborious days.' The subject must be treated in a scholarly manner; and, if possible, some new light thrown on it and old errors corrected.
The Latin Seminar may be taken as an illustration—The Comparative Syntax of the Greek and Latin Verb, under Professor Hale. The aim and plan of procedure are thus outlined for the autumn, winter and spring quarters of 1899-1900, two hours a week:
So to produce scholarly workers in the various fields of learning is the function of the University—to train specialists, to make critics in the higher sense, to furnish investigators who will enter fresh fields and give the world the fruits of their researches. It is for this kind of work that the University of Chicago stands—not merely to impart what is already known, but to seek and find new knowledge. This is the province of a university as conceived by President Harper. It is a high ideal that he holds up: "The true university is the center of thought on every problem connected with human life and work, and the first obligation resting upon the individual members which compose it is that of research and investigation."
Eugene Parsons.
