president's address — SECTION I. 181 



ever be allowed to take first place. Teaching' is much more 

 important than the testing- of the teaching. I am opposed 

 to the multiplication of examinations, and would favour any 

 proposal not to make them easier but to make them simpler. 

 I now propose, as a wordmonger interested in the history 

 of words, to consider a word which you will often hear in 

 the next few days. It seems to me that the present use of 

 the word Science, as, for instance, in the title of this Asso- 

 ciation, is quite modern. I asked my friend Professor 

 Laurie for an accepted definition of Science, and he gave me 

 the following as that which he is in the habit of imparting to 

 the students attending his lectures : — " A science may be 

 defined as a body of kindred truths, systematically arranged, 

 marked out from other departments of knowledge by some 

 broad definition of subject-matter and with a view to facility 

 of study and communication." This is admirable. No doubt 

 in this sense Aristotle uses the word tTriaTijfxi] ; Cicero, the 

 word scientia with defining adjuncts ; Aquinas, the Avord 

 scientia by itself; Pascal, the word " science" in French. If 

 philosophy or if logic be defined as scientia scientiarum, and 

 both have been so defined, scientia is used in that sense. 

 But the definition is that of a science, not of Science spelt 

 with the capital letter, and almost personified. The word 

 occurs frequently enough in the writings of the last century, 

 but not in its modern sense. Let us begin with Gray, who 

 would not only have made an admirable President of this 

 Section, but was qualified, if we can compare one time with 

 another, to be President of several other Sections. After his 

 death, his friend Temple wrote that he " was perhaps the 

 most learned man in Europe. He knew every branch of 

 history, both natural and civil ;" and the branches of natural 

 history that Gray knew so well are defined as botany, zoology, 

 and entomology. Gray, therefore, who knew the sciences, 

 would have used the word science in its modern meaning, 

 had that then been attached to it. In the epitaph that closes 

 the " Elegy in a Country Churchyard " occurs the fine — 



" Fair science frowned not on his humble birth." 

 To a modern reader that naturally conveys a modern idea, 

 but that is the sort of mistake we are always making when 

 a word has slightly changed its meaning. Gray only meant 

 knowledge or learning in general. He might have substi- 

 tuted knowledge for science in the epitaph, or science for 

 knowledge in the earlier lines — 



