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Research...
the quest for something seldom found
Iowa Department of Natural Resources chief Paul Johnson read the following quote at Dennis Keeney's retirement reception in December. The passage is from a letter written by Aldo Leopold to his friend Judge Botts comparing the perfect research project to a fox hunt-"a perpetual quest for something seldom found."
The quest must lie in no single field of science. Like a cold trail laid at random across a thousand hills, it must transect with contemptuous abandon all those little patches which the priests of knowledge have labeled, fenced, and pre-empted as separate "sciences." Should by any chance the fox be one day run to earth, no bureau or department or learned society must strut or crow as the successful master of hounds. Rather should men marvel at how little each had known or done, over what wide horizons a single quest can lead, and even then be but a single spider's skin, laid on the panorama of the unknown hills.
"You've laid a spider's skin at least," added Johnson, referring to Keeney's 11 years as director of the Leopold Center and initiation of several interdisciplinary issue teams. "I know there were times you wished you could change the world, but your wanderings have inspired us all."
For a more complete version of the quote, see pp. 347-348 of Curt Meine's biography, Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work.
Return to Spring 2000 Leopold Letter index
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