26 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
than was possible a hundred years ago, and what was then 
a speculation has now become a demonstrated truth. 
But, if we believe in a purpose at ali, we must believe 
that everything which has contributed towards realising that 
purpose was designed to do so. If the carbon in the earth's 
atmosphere was intended for the building up of organic be 
ings, so also were iron and gold intended for the use of man. 
And, further, there are numerous things in the world 
which, by their variety or beauty, so excite our admiration 
or curiosity as to induce us to examine them closely, and 
thus they have helped to lay the foundations of science. 
This appears to be the only use these things have in the 
world. As examples, I may mention crystals, and the 
beautiful colours and shapes of many animals, Attempis 
have been made to show that all the latter are either of use 
to their possessors, or else that they have been of use to 
some ancestor, and are, therefore, in no way connected with 
-the evolution of man. They are thought to be merely side 
branches, which led to nothing, from the main stem of evo- 
lution. These attempts to make the utilitarian doctrine 
universal were never agreed to by Darwin, and, to the best 
of my judgment, they have not been established.* 
We all recognise what science has done for civilisation. 
But how did the scientific study of nature begin? And why 
is it carried on? No doubt it is largely due to man trying 
to make himself more comfortable by improving his sur- 
roundings. But this is the work of applied science only, 
and for workers in pure science mere utility has no charms. 
It is the wonderful and the beautiful in nature which are, 
and always will be, the moving forces of pure science. 
Utility has never been the only agent which excites men’s 
minds to observe and to reason, and all the great laws of 
nature have been discovered without any reference to it.” 
Without the beauty, and wonderful complexity, of natural 
objects, man would never have risen above the level of an 
intelligent beast. Biologists, too, often forget that wonder 
and admiration are the principal moving forces in psych- 
ology. And as we may feel sure that beautiful objects were 
intended to do the work they have done, it follows that the 
wonderful and the beautiful must be recognised as prospec- 
tive agents in biology. 
But, if all these elaborate arrangements have been de- 
signed for the purpose of constraining man to evolve his own 
mind, there must be some reason for it. If it is part of the 
* See Jour. Linn. Soc. Zoology, XXVI., p. 330; and Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist. Ser. 7, Vol., XII., p. 221. 
