Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/763

 SCIENCE AND CITIZENSHIP 747

workshop of this or that high-priest. His workshop is usually a small room with a few books and maps. Here, without fee or charge, he completes the unfinished tasks, and solves the harder problems; and hence he delivers the finished goods as a free gift to the community at large. He is fortunate indeed if he escapes without having himself to pay the cost of delivery. The reward of his office is harder work, less pay, and more criticism than that of the ordinary brothers. The high-priest of geography, as of other science, is not differentiated by sartorial insignia, by definitive status, or by obsequious designation, but is generally recognizable by certain personal characteristics by the world-light that shines from his eyes, by the nobility of his countenance, by his threadbare coat, and usually, it must be con- fessed, by the baldness of his head. In the common phrase of everyday life, he is known as an "eminent scientist." In the jargon of his profession, he is "an authority."

It is the real, though unexpressed, ambition of every young scientist to become "an authority." In the many graduated stages toward this consummation there is one of special signifi- cance. If the young observer steadily continues his observations and interpretations, and faithfully compares his results with the records of science, he will find that he steadily progresses toward a climax. He will some day catch a moment or a mood, a phase or a happening, in the fleeting movement of things, which will thrill him with an emotion intenser than any he has before ex- perienced. He will instinctively feel that one of the secrets of the universe has been revealed to him and to him alone. Under the mysterious glow of unforgettable enthusiasm, he will feel his personality expand, until the self of his ego meets and touches, in a sublime union, the self of the world. In other words, he has been initiated into the fraternity of science, and for the first time he is, and feels himself to be, no novice, but a full brother of the community.

It is clear we are here in the presence of a psychological phe- nomenon known in another walk of life as "conversion." In science it is known as the discovery of a new truth. It may be a truth which is of the most trifling importance in relation to the