president's address. 13 



plain language, what it means is the employment, at every 

 stage of a process or undertaking of the means best suited to 

 attain the desired end. And as a method it is always essen- 

 tially the same, no matter how the desired end may vary, — 

 whether the latter be, as w^e in Cape Colony have seen it to be, 

 the sanitation of a town, the tracking of a crime, the repres- 

 sion of a native rebellion, the fighting of an invading disease, 

 or the capturing of a market for fruit or wool. In all of these 

 there was the same need for collecting accurate data, using 

 all previously acquired relevant knowledge, planning skilfully 

 a course of procedure, selecting wisely the human agents neces- 

 sary, and then prosecuting with steady persistency the plan 

 resolved on. 



I need hardly say, in conclusion, that all that the most 

 enlightened State can do will never be fully effective without a 

 continuance of that zeal and devotion on the part of the private 

 zvorker which has been so conspicuous in the past history of 

 science. And, fortunately, in the course of evolution man has 

 become so constituted that a stoppage of the supplv need not 

 be feared. Alany will still be found willing and eager to work 

 for the work's sake, whether the State does its duty or the 

 reverse, merely resting on the assurance that " Nature never 

 did betray the heart that truly loved her." The grand example 

 to all of us is that of Faraday. To read of his devotion and 

 disinterestedness is at all times an unfailing delight. Although 

 the sciences which he cultivated were full of practical applica- 

 tions he never once sought to make them profitable. Though 

 others took them up and grew rich on them he looked on in 

 calm contentment without a trace of envy or regret. Even 

 when the mere use of his name would have brought him wealth 

 no temptation could overcome him. For about half a century 

 he lived in comparative retirement beside his work in the Royal 

 Institution, endowing the world with the revelations of his 

 genius and seeking nought in return, even refusing posts of 

 the greatest honour and declining titles eagerly sought for bv 

 men in a higher position than himself. And after all, a life 

 like his, spent in research, does not go unrewarded. It mav 

 be oftenest its own reward, but that this is ample all real 

 workers will bear witness. That I may the more deeplv impress 

 this conviction on the minds of the younger members of the 

 Association, 1 refrain from using my own Avords, quoting in- 

 stead those of a great living- biologist: — "To aid in the pro- 

 duction of new knowledge," he says, "is the keenest and 

 purest pleasure of which man is capable, greater than that 

 derived from the exercise of his animal faculties in proportion 

 as man's mind is something greater and further developed 

 than the mind of brutes. It is in itself an unmixed good, the 

 one thing which commends itself as still ' worth while ' when 

 all other employments and delights prove themselves stale and 

 unprofitable." To this I merely add, as a consolatory echo, 

 the old English couplet : — 



When land is gone and money spent 

 Then learning; is most excellent. 



