6 



is "vulgariser I'anthropologie," ' So I should be inclined to sa}', our 

 object in tbis Association is 'vulgariser' Science. You will see at 

 once tbat I cannot translate tbis into English : for our insular 

 exclusiveness bas long ago attached to eveiytbing vulgar a sense of 

 degi-adation. But the word just expresses what I mean : any other 

 word, such as 'popularise,' would not do so. You cannot render 

 Science popular except by some sacrifice of its high truthfulness, and 

 that is what we certainly do not contemplate. In the best sense of the 

 word, we want to vulgarise Science ; perhaps, in these days of general 

 education, the old exclusive sense will depart, and the good sense of 

 the word will come back to it. We want to make it the common 

 heritage of the whole community — its triumphs the common 

 triumphs — its progress the common interests — its principles the 

 leading and guiding aims of all of us. For if those principles be, 

 as I maintain they are, truth, progress, and tolerance, human nature 

 can find no higher : — and if the scientific teacher assert them, and 

 the scientific learner be actuated by them, the more vulgar Science 

 can be made the better. 



"This leads to the remark that one of our proposed mles, 

 while it is calculated in the good sense of the word to vulgarise 

 Science, is likely to have the precisely opposite consequence with 

 regard to the bad sense of the word. We propose to make our 

 Meetings common to both sexes, by admitting the refining and 

 elevating influence of female society to them. It will be suggested 

 that you should resolve ' That the Meetings should usually be open 

 to ladies as -v-isitors on the introduction of a Member.' This is a 

 question on which Scientific Societies are much divided ; but I do 

 not anticipate that it will cause much di^-ision among us. If our 

 object be that which I have described, the presence of ladies on any 

 suitable occasion, in these days when the appetite for scientific 

 infoi-mation is so widely diJBPused, wUl undoubtedly be an aid, and 

 not a hindrance, to us. There may be occasions — I do not think 

 they will frequently arise — when questions of a physiological or 

 ethnological character may come before us which would involve 

 discussions at which ladies could not assist without offence to 

 Mrs. Grundy ; but if such questions should arise, the tact of the 

 Members may be relied upon not to bring the ladies of their family 



