ne or ascertained, but the character
of the work itself; the direction it takes--the inferences that he draws
from it, will be controlled and coloured by what he reads of others' work.
And even if he finds it easy to ascertain what has been done and to get at
the published accounts and discussions of it, the mass may be so great
that he has laid out for him a course of reading that may last many
months.

But mark the spirit with which he attacks it! He is at work on something
that seems to him supremely worth while. He is labouring to find out
truth, to dissipate error, to help his fellow-men to know something or to
do something. The impulse to read, and to read much and thoroughly, is so
powerful that it may even need judicious repression. The difference
between this kind of reading and that done in the preparation of a paper
to fill a place in a set programme hardly needs emphasis.

The preparation of papers for professional and technical societies has
been dwelt upon at such length, because I see no reason why the impulse to
reading that it furnishes cannot also be placed at the disposal of the
woman's club; and I shall have some suggestions toward this end in a
future article.

Meanwhile, I shall doubtless be told that it is unfair to compare the
woman's club, with its didactic aim, and the scientific association of
trained and interested investigators. It is true that we have plenty of
clubs--some of men alone, some of both sexes--whose object is to listen to
interesting and instructive papers on a set subject, often forming part of
a pre-arranged programme. These, however, need our attention here only so
far as the papers are prepared by members of the club, and in this case
they are in precisely the same class as the woman's club. In many cases,
however, the paper is merely the excuse for a social gathering, perhaps at
a dinner or a luncheon. Of course if the paper or lecture is by an expert
invited to give it, the case falls altogether outside of the region that
we are exploring.

I am condemning here all clubs, formed for an avowed educational or
cultural purpose, that adopt set programmes and assign the subjects to
their own members. I am deploring the kind of reading to which this leads,
the kind of papers that are prepared in this way, and the kind of thought
and action that are the inevitable outcome.

It would seem that the women's clubs now form an immense majority of all
organisations of this kind a