X. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



closer intercourse of followers of various scientific works and 

 thought, which is the object and aim of this society. 



Various attempts have been made from time to time 

 to classify the sciences ; but, without success. Herbert 

 Spencer classifies them thus — Abstract Science, Logic and 

 Mathematics, Abstract Concrete Sciences, Mechanics, Chemistry, 

 Physics and Concrete Science, Astronomy, Biology, Geology, 

 Sociology, etc, It was Sir J. Herschell who said in con- 

 nection with this subject, " Science is a whole, whose 

 source is lost in infinity, and which nothing but the imperfectness 

 of our nature obliges us to divide. We feel our nothingness in 

 our attempts to grasp it, and bow with humility and adoration 

 before the Supreme Intelligence, who alone can comprehend it." 

 No science rests on a firmer basis than mathematics, which, 

 being founded on demonstrative evidence, may be accepted as 

 absolutely true. The results in logic, which, like mathematics, 

 being a deductive science, are much less certain ; still logic is 

 essentially the science of the art of proof. All other sciences are 

 to a large extent inductive, these resting on probable evidence, 

 and continually approaching nearer and nearer to it, as scientific 

 methods improve. Thus, sciences vary in the distance they 

 have moved towards perfection ; in mental and physical ^^cience, 

 the former can largely be studied by reflection in our own mental 

 operations, the latter requires observation, experiment and 

 comparison of facts obtained, inductive and deductive reasoning, 

 all ending in as wide a generalisation as the obtained 

 facts will admit. No one can be a truly scientific 

 student unless he places truth as a prima importance, and 

 is prepared to sacrifice all preconceived ideas and elaborate 

 opinions, whenever he finds them to be in error. No expenditure 

 of time, money, or even life, is considered extravagant, if the 

 sacrifice be made for the discovery of new truths. The early 

 stages in the evolution of science go back to remote perioJs of 

 antiquity. Moral science, a department of mental science, reached 

 some degree of maturity first in primitive man, in a desire to 

 ascertain what his conduct should be to his fellows and God or 

 Gods. Mental science or the investigation of the thinking and 

 feeling mind came next, but even up to the present time has made 

 but slow progress. Physical science had really commenced, 

 although in its infancy, when ancient myths of observation were 

 formed, many of which were hypothesis to account for natural 



