RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO THE PUBLIC _ WEAL. 39 



ence will be continued by the fact that we have invited Sir William 

 Dawson, of Montreal, to be our next president at Birmingham. 



II. Science and the State. — I can not address you in Aberdeen 

 without recollecting that when we last met in this city our president was 

 a great prince. The just verdict of time is that, high as was his royal 

 rank, he has a far nobler claim to our regard as a lover of humanity in 

 its widest sense, and especially as a lover of those arts and sciences 

 which do so much to adorn it. On September 14, 1859, I sat on this 

 platform and listened to the eloquent address and wise counsel of the 

 Prince Consort. At one time a member of his household, it was my 

 privilege to co-operate with this illustrious prince in many questions 

 relating to the advancement of science. I naturally, therefore, turn to 

 his presidential address to see whether I might not now continue those 

 counsels which he then gave with all the breadth and comprehensive- 

 ness of his masterly speeches. I found, as I expected, a text for my 

 own discourse in some pregnant remarks which he made upon the re- 

 lation of science to the state. They are as follows : " We may be 

 justified in hoping . . . that the Legislature and the state will more 

 and more recognize the claims of science to their attention ; so that it 

 may no longer require the begging-box, but speak to the state like a 

 favored child to its parent, sure of his paternal solicitude for its wel- 

 fare ; that the state will recognize in science one of its elements of 

 strength and prosperity, to foster which the clearest dictates of self- 

 interest demand." 



This opinion, in its broadest sense, means that the relations of sci- 

 ence to the state should be made more intimate because the advance 

 of science is needful to the public weal. 



The importance of promoting science as a duty of statecraft was 

 well enough known to the ancients, especially to the Greeks and 

 Arabs, but it ceased to be recognized in the dark ages, and was lost to 

 sight during the revival of letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth cent- 

 uries. Germany and France, which are now in such active competi- 

 tion in promoting science, have only publicly acknowledged its na- 

 tional importance in recent times. Even in the last century, though 

 France had its Lavoisier and Germany its Leibnitz, their Governments 

 did not know the value of science. When the former was condemned 

 to death in the Reign of Terror, a petition was presented to the rulers 

 that his life might be spared for a few weeks, in order that he might 

 complete some important experiments, bat the reply was, "The re- 

 public has no need of savants^ Earlier in the century the much- 

 praised Frederick William of Prussia shouted with a loud voice, dur- 

 ing a graduation ceremony in the University of Frankfort, "An ounce 

 of mother-wit is worth a ton of university wisdom ! " Both France 

 and Germany are now ashamed of these utterances of their rulers, 

 and make energetic efforts to advance science with the aid of their 

 national resources. More remarkable is it to see a young nation like 



