BRAIN-POWER AND HISTORY. 77 



I suppose it is my duty after I have suggested the need of organiza- 

 tion to tell you my personal opinion as to the matters where we sujffer 

 most in consequence of our lack of organization at the present time. 



Our position as a nation, our success as merchants, are in peril 

 chiefly — dealing with preventable causes — because of our lack of com- 

 pletely efficient universities, and our neglect of research. This research 

 has a double end. A professor who is not learning can not teach 

 properly or arouse enthusiasm in his students; while a student of 

 anything who is unfamiliar with research methods, and without that 

 training which research brings, will not be in the best position to apply 

 his knowledge in after life. From neglect of research come imperfect 

 education and a small output of new applications and new knowledge to 

 reinvigorate our industries. From imperfect education come the un- 

 concern touching scientific matters, and the too frequent absence of 

 the scientific spirit, in the nation generally from the court to the 

 parish council. 



I propose to deal as briefly as I can with each of these points. 



I have shown that so far as our industries are concerned, the 

 cause of our failure has been run to earth ; it is fully recognized that it 

 arises from the insufficiency of our universities both in numbers and 

 efficiency, so that not only our captains of industry, but those employed 

 on the nation 's work generally, do not secure a training similar to that 

 afforded by other nations. No additional endowment of primary, second- 

 ary or technical instruction will mend matters. This is not merely the 

 opinion of men of science; our great towns know it, our ministers 

 know it. 



It is sufficient for me to quote Mr. Chamberlain : 



It is not every one who can, by any possibility, go forward into the higher 

 spheres of education; but it is from those who do that we have to look for the 

 men who, in the future, will carry high the flag of this country in commercial, 

 scientific and economic competition with other nations. At the present moment, 

 I believe there is nothing more important than to supply the deficiencies which 

 separate us from those with whom we are in the closest competition. In Ger- 

 many, in America, in our own colony of Canada and in Australia, the higher 

 education of the people has more support from the government, is carried 

 further, than it is here in the old country; and the result is that in every pro- 

 fession, in every industry, you find the places taken by men and by women 

 who have had a university education. And I would like to see the time in 

 this country when no man should have a chance for any occupation of the better 

 kind, either in our factories, our workshops or our counting-houses, who could 

 not show proof that, in the course of his university career, he had deserved the 

 position that was offered to him. What is it that makes a coimtry ? Of course 

 you may say, and you would be quite right, ' The general qualities of the people, 

 their resolution, their intelligence, their pertinacity, and many other good 

 qualities.' Yes; but that is not all, and it is not the main creative feature of 

 a great nation. The greatness of a nation is made by its greatest men. It 

 is those we want to educate. It is to those who are able to go, it may be, from 



