182 president's address — section I. 



" But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 

 Rich with the spoils oi time did ne'er miroll ; 

 Chill penury rejoressed their noble rage, 

 And froze the genial current of the soul." 



In the Ode for Music at the installation of the Chancellor ot 

 the University of Cambridge, (zray speaks of " bright-eyed 

 science." If this ode were revived at the next installation, 

 when the present Duke of Devonshire succeeds his father, 

 (name " dear to science, dear to art") the word would bear a 

 wholly different meaning from what it had when Gray used 

 it. But there is a still better instance in the " Ode on a 

 Distant Prospect of Eton College " — 



" Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 



That crown the wat'ry glade, 

 Where grateful Science still [i.e., always] adores 



Her Henry's holy shade." 



Now, one need be very slightly versed in the history of 

 English education to be well aware that, whatever Eton may 

 teach now, not a single scrap of what we technically call a 

 scientific education was imparted there in August, 1742. In 

 the middle of last century, in the reign of Dr. Johnson, nouns 

 with a Latin origin had the preference over words of English 

 origin. Let us test the use of science by Johnson himself. 

 Four years earlier than the " Ode to Eton," Johnson in his 

 "London" makes Thales indignant eye the town, and then 

 burst forth into denunciation of London, in imitation of 

 Juvenal's attack on Rome — 



" Since worth, he cries, in these degenerate days 



[How often have we heard that since !] ^ 



Wants e'en the cheap reward of empty praise ; 



In those cursed walls devote to vice and gain, 



Since unrewarded science toils in vain." 



In this remark neither Thales nor Johnson was thinking of 

 geology or entomology. Possibly they would not have 

 objected if such studies had been unrewarded. From an 

 amusing note in Boswell we learn what Johnson understood 

 by a book of science. " We had tea in the afternoon," says 

 Boswell, "and our landlord's daughter, a modest, civil girl, 

 very neatly dressed, made it for us. * * * Dr. 

 Johnson made her a present of a book which he had bought 

 at Inverness." To this more suo Boswell adds a note upon 

 the book. " This book has given rise to much inquiry, 

 which has ended in ludicrous surprise. Several ladies, 

 wishing to learn the kind of reading which the great and 

 good Dr. Johnson esteemed most fit for a young woman, 



