48 I'RKSIl)l':XTl.\i. ADDKKSS SECTION C. 



Twenty years ago who could have foretold that we should 

 live to see men as birds flying, not in cumbrous floating airships, 

 but using machines heavier than air, controlled by wings imitated 

 from the creatures of that element, and propelled by engines 

 that are a triumph of modern applied science. 



Truly no limit can be set to human accomplishments, and 

 one must be very chary in using that foolish word " impossible." 

 Well may we be lost in astonishment at man's attainments, while 

 if, with prophetic imagination, we look into the future, we almost 

 hold our breath as we watch the rapidly accelerating rate of 

 progress, and wonder where we shall be by the end of this cen- 

 tury. 



At the same time, the splendour and the promise of these 

 things, and the exhilarating sense of upward motion, will never 

 conceal from the thoughtful man the certain fact that the secret 

 spring of progress is always to be found in the study and the 

 workshop of the unadvertised searcher after truth. Not only 

 liavt the great advances of the past and the astounding attain- 

 ments of the present alike had their origin in the same humble 

 spot; all hope for the future also must be sought in the same 

 place. If it could be imagined that the select band of truth- 

 seekers now with us was the last, and that no successors could 

 be found to carry on their sacred, self-appointed task, then 

 mankind would come to a standstill, or nearly so. for all chance 

 of new discoveries and inventions would then depend entirely 

 on empiric work, and advance in civilization would be by inter- 

 Miittent jerks at irregular intervals. 



I make this point to emphasise the dependence of practice 

 upon theory, because it cannot too often be brought home to 

 nations and to governments, in order that continual and sufficient 

 encouragement may be given to research work of all kinds. The 

 necessity for such encouragement exists everywhere, but it is 

 specially apt to be forgotten or overlooked in young countries 

 like Rhodesia. In reality the circumstances attending the open- 

 ing up of new territories for the occupation of civilized man 

 demand attention in this respect more urgently than is the case 

 elsewhere, for then we have to encounter fresh and untried 

 conditions as to climate, soil, inhabitants, diseases, animals, 

 minerals, products of the land and general mode of living. 

 Therefore, as soon as peace has been secured, government 

 established, and communications opened up, one of the next and 

 most pressing duties of the Government must always be to 

 encourage -and employ, so far as its means permit, a number of 

 highly qualified men in various branches of Science, who should 

 be freed from, administrative responsibilities, and allowed to 

 . de^^ote their ''whole time and energies to the study and elucida- 

 tion of- the problems peculiar to the locality. 



