66 Scientific Triith and thc Scientific Spirit 



fessor Wilson was eminent for his attainments and achievements in 

 many fields, but he was chiefly known at the time as a pathmaker 

 in what were then the trackless wilds of the eadiest history o£ our 

 race, and, therefore, the selection of him as a lecturer on the subject 

 could not have been more aptly made. It was a fortunate selection 

 from another point of view. His subject could not be remotely 

 associated with the war then begun, but, had it been otherwise, his 

 habit of mind prevented him from alluding to it in his lectures, and 

 not even once in his conversation during his stay in Washington 

 did he indicate the slightest interest in the great struggle then begun. 

 There were occasions when he could have referred to it. Fre- 

 quently during the delivery of his lectures the boom of cannon, 

 heard in the lecture room, coming from across the Potomac, punc- 

 tuated his sentences. According to the late Dr. Otis T. Mason, 

 who was my informant on this subject, he left as a memory of his 

 Visit a reputation for mental detachment that was Olympic in its 

 character. 



This evening I appear before you in a role which is in some 

 respects parallel to that filled by Sir Daniel Wilson on that occasion, 

 but there are in it contrasts also. Your country, your nation is now 

 at peace and it is my country that is at war, engaged in a struggle 

 unparallelled in history. Canada has already played a part and she 

 is preparing to play a larger one. She is to increase her army of 

 200,000 men to half a million, that is, to train and arm five men 

 out of every twelve of the male population between the ages of 

 eighteen and forty-five. That will indicate the magnitude of 

 the task we have undertaken. There can be no mistaking the 

 seriousness with which we regard what is before us. Our young 

 men are preparing to do their duty and to pay the toll that may be 

 exacted. Daily through my laboratory Windows comes the sound 

 of the drilling of more than seventeen hundred men, which goes on 

 from morning to night on our University lawn. We have already 

 sent seven hundred of our students and young graduates overseas 

 on active service and we have now a continually lengthening Roll 

 of Honour with its sad yet noble memories of those whom Age 

 shall not weary nor the Years condemn. The end may be far off 

 and the future is dark and heavy with fate, but we are going for- 



