But if the historic method must be rejected as too lengthy one may plead for its partial application. Let the text-book give the broad outlines, and let the student supplement these by reading, wherever possible, the standard memoirs written by the original discoverers. In this way he will gain something much more valuable than a more thorough acquaintance with his subject; he will learn something of the mental gesture of the true man of science, something very different from the glittering efficiency of the text-book writer. Consider, for instance, the following passage from Newton, writing on the theory of light: He discusses a corpuscular theory, and continues: But they, that like not this, may suppose light any other corporeal emanation, or any impulse or motion of any other medium or æthereal spirit diffused through the main body of æther, or what else they can imagine proper for this purpose. To avoid dispute, and make this hypothesis general, let every man here take his fancy; only whatever light be, I suppose it consists of rays differing from one another in contingent circumstances, as bigness, form, or vigour. The subject here becomes alive in a way it never does in the text-book. It is of the greatest importance that the student should see, not merely the results, but the avenues of approach. He will gain more confidence in his own powers and more interest in the subject. For those people also who, without being students, take an interest in science, the reading of original memoirs may be recommended. Much of the science they learn in this way will be wrong, but they will see it as something thoroughly human and, it may be, as something thoroughly sympathetic. The text-book has an air of infallibility which is very repellent, and it is difficult to avoid associating this with the scientific man. But it is merely a manifestation of the same tendency that produces stereotyped restaurants. A reading of the old memoirs shows science as tentative, imaginative, courageous. They show that the man of science is a humanist. THE ENTENTE CORDIALE