Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-04-26
THE PROFESSIONAL CLUB.
"The Strength and Weakness of
Specialists"

As Discussed by Rev II. u. Maxwell
Monday Evening, which was the An
nuaI Ladies Night and the Closing
Meeting of this Season.
"The Strength and Weakness of Special
lists was the theme of the excellent paper
which Rev. II. ID. Maxwell read before the
Professional club at the annual "lades
night meeting, and the closing meeting of
the season, Monday evening at the Brooks
House Briefly stated, the essayist found
the strength of specialists to lie in the ma
tive force and insight and concentration
which those who work in some one field of
thought or research are able to exert in
this one direction: and their weakness to
lie in their tendency to become dognatic,
to develop theory for the whole universe
from their conclusions in their one little
field of investigation.
In developing his subject Mr.. Maxwell
said the time had gone by, or was rapidly
passing, when any power, civil or eccesias-
teal, would presume to place limit on
the right or the scope of independent indi-
vidual research. Unqualified liberty in the
pursuit of truth is coming to be recognized
as a universal right. The number of
minds that are working silently but faith
every land-in the laboratory of chemistry
with its visible facts, and in the laborat Dry
of mind and spirit with its invisible reali-
ties-is continually increasing and in pro-
portion as the army of truth DISCOVERIES
receives additional recruits is the tendency
strengthened for each student to limit still
further the boundaries of the department
in which he purposes to work. In the state
of things to which this tendency inevitably
leads it comes to be more and more the fact
that the word of the specialist, in his own
line of work, is accepted above any other
testimony. This, then, leads to the neces-
sity of trying TO determine in what direction
lies the strength of the specialist and in
what his weakness.
The true specialist is strong because he
he is working with instruments that have
| been his delight from his earliest days /;
he is doing those things that he likes to do /;
| he is investigating along the lines for which
his faculties are best adapted. He posses
ses the strength of enthusiasm. His method
| is ideal. 1t is what We can call the scien-
tific method-careful, honest, free; un-
prejudiced, and open to fact and truth from
whatever source. 1t knows no authority
but that of the truth. His strength is eX-
hibited, moreover, in his method; in his
careful process of analysis, classification
and generalization. Exhaustiveness of re-
search, and facility and correctness in
handling material give the specialist large
measure of his authority. 1t has been vel
said that "scence perfects genius" A
third source of strength is in the concen
tration of enthusiasm, research ant
method; in the marshaling of all the men
tai powers against one particular point o.
attack. But after all this been said tn,
true secret of the strength and authority
of the specialist remains to be revealed
and this lies in his experience. Tn,
farmer, the mechanic, the man of business
the navigator, who has sailed for a quarte
of century the wintry seas, is each
specialist in his own department of work
1t is because in the case of each theory ant
practice have crystalized into eXperienc,
that each has become worthy to be counted
a trained authority.
Turning now to higher realms of fact
the strength of the experienced specialist i
equally in evidence. In every department
of art-in painting, in sculpture, in music
and the drama, in architecture, in litera
ture, it is the men of experience, the grea
masters of their time, whose testimony W
/, accept, whose standards we adopt. HOY
powerfully this element of strength in tn
specialist is exhibited in some of the praC
teal sciences. What is it that make
Edison and Dolbear and Tesla the author
ties in the department of electricity? 1t