BRAIN-POWER AND HISTORY. 71 



THE INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 



By Sir NORMAN LOCKYER, 



BOYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE. 



SOME years ago, in discussing the relations of scientific instruction 

 to our industries, Huxley pointed out that we were in presence 

 of a new 'struggle for existence,' a struggle which, once commenced 

 must go on until only the fittest survives. 



It is a struggle between organized species — nations — not between 

 individuals or any class of individuals. It is, moreover, a struggle 

 in which science and brains take the place of swords and sinews, on 

 which depended the result of those conflicts which, up to the present, 

 have determined the history and fate of nations. The school, the uni- 

 versity, the laboratory and the workshop are the battlefields of this 

 new warfare. 



But it is evident that if this, or anything like it, be true, our indus- 

 tries can not be involved alone; the scientific spirit, brain-power, must 

 not be limited to the workshop if other nations utilize it in all branches 

 of their administration and executive. 



It is a question of an important change of front. It is a question of 

 finding a new basis of stability for the Empire in face of new condi- 

 tions. I am certain that those familiar with the present states of 

 things will acknowledge that the Prince of Wales's call, 'Wake up,' 

 applies quite as much to the members of the government as it does 

 to the leaders of industry. 



What is wanted is a complete organization of the resources of the 

 nation, so as to enable it best to face all the new problems which the 

 progress of science, combined with the ebb and flow of population 

 and other factors in international competition, are ever bringing before 

 us. Every minister, every public department, is involved, and this 

 being so, it is the duty of the whole nation — king, lords and commons — 

 to do what is necessary to place our scientific institutions on a proper 

 footing in order to enable us to 'face the music' whatever the future 

 may bring. The idea that science is useful only to our industries 

 comes from want of thought. If any one is under the impression that 

 Britain is only suffering at present from the want of the scientific 

 spirit among our industrial classes, and that those employed in the 

 state service possess adequate brain-power and grip of the conditions 



* From the address of the president of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Southport, 1903. 



