reciate its values.
Without this preparation we cannot give due weight to the minute
things from which science draws its conclusions.

The capacity for sustained and accurate application to a task the
object of which is apparently of very small importance, is indeed a
most valuable asset to him who hopes to advance in science. Let us
call to mind what a physicist does to place an instrument absolutely
level; how patiently he turns first one screw and then another, tries
again and again, slowly and carefully: and to what end? to procure an
absolutely horizontal direction for a surface. When this measure of
comparison is established in hard metal, how carefully it must be
preserved to ensure that the oscillations of temperature shall not
modify the length even in the most infinitesimal degree; for this
would be fatal to the scientific use of the instrument in measuring
horizontals. And yet how slight a thing in itself is involved! the
preservation of a measure! When the great chemist wishes to find out
whether _traces_ of a substance can give a reaction he seems to be
playing with his phials like a little boy; he takes a retort and fills
it with the substance he wishes to study, and then empties it;
afterwards he fills it with water, and watches for the reaction; the
reaction takes place; then again he empties the retort, fills it anew
with water, and sees whether there is a further reaction. Thus he
establishes the degree of dilution in which the substance will leave
traces. In this case the minimum is the important thing; it was to
find this imperceptible, negligible minimum that the great man acted
like a child.

This attitude of _humility_ is an element of patience. In all things
the scientist is humble: from the external action of descending from
his professional throne to work standing at a little table, from the
taking off of his robes to don the workman's blouse, from having laid
aside the dignity of one who states an authoritative and indisputable
truth to assume the position of one who is seeking the truth together
with his pupils, and inviting them to verify it, to the end not that
they should learn a doctrine but that they should be spurred to
activity by the truth--from all this, down to the tasks he carries out
in his laboratory. He considers nothing too small to absorb all his
powers, to claim his entire attention, to occupy all his time. Even
when social honors are heaped upon him, he maintains the same