12 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



having- suitably freed the glossary from its alphabetical order, 

 will reproduce it as a serious disquisition, to be delivered in 

 the morning' with unctuous complacency and an air of supreme 

 conviction. One thing certain is that in particular the appel- 

 lation " self-seeking," as applied to men of science, is singu- 

 larly unfortunate, for, tnough the scientist with such a bent 

 is not unknown, one's whole experience is that he is a com- 

 parative rarity, and that the more zeal a man has for science 

 the less regardful he is of self. Indeed, it has been maintained 

 that in the virtues of unselfishness and truthfulness the man 

 who has chosen the pursuit of science for his life-work note- 

 worthily excels. No less an authority than Helmholtz, himself 

 a man of the world as w'ell as a great investigator, has 

 spontaneously testified to this, speaking with enthusiasm of 

 the scientific man's " Sittenstrenge," and his " uneigennutzige 

 Begeisterung." Unfortunately, it is possible that this " Sit- 

 tenstrenge " is exactly what our public men would consider an 

 eccentricity, their shortsightedness leading them to mistake a 

 surface freckle for a deep-seated defect. Be all this as it may, 

 however, it is important to urge on both sides the fact that 

 the man of science and the man of affairs, whatever their respec- 

 tive frailties may be, have need of each other, and must there- 

 fore in the future strive to know each other better, and learn to 

 co-operate more effectively in the interest of the State. To 

 this end he who aims at state-administration must seek to 

 possess other qualities and other aptitudes than those of the 

 mere party-politician, so that, besides doing his own proper 

 work well, he may be better able to gauge the value of pure 

 scientific work and be the better fitted to sympathize with the 

 ideals and aspirations of even the extremest of specialists. On 

 the other hand, the specialist must aim a little more at width 

 of outlook and knowledge of men and affairs, must seek to 

 moderate his exaggerated estimate of the importance of his 

 own little domain, and must try to see good in the labours of 

 other specialists in fields far distant from his own, never for- 

 getting that all fields are but perfectly-fitted portions of a 

 kosmic whole, and that, as the botanist and the astronomer 

 in particular must come to know — 



Thou canst not stir a flower 

 Without troubhng a star. 



It would be a neglected opportunity if we did not note in 

 passing that the need for a good understanding between the 

 devotee of statecraft and the student of science is only part of 

 a much wider need. Men who aspire to be leaders in muni- 

 cipal affairs, in commerce, in trade, in the manufacturing indus- 

 tries, in agriculture, must all come to know how substantially 

 dependent they are upon science, and how indeed in a very 

 real wav they must become more and more scientific themselves 

 in the conduct of their affairs. With them also the day is gone 

 when rule-of-thumb is a sufficient guide. Even sound common- 

 sense, so great a stand-by in the past, is no longer enough : 

 what is wanted is that glorified form of common-sense known 

 as scientific method. Practical men in every line of life are 

 beginning to see this, though they may not use the term. In 



