SCIENCE AND POETRY. 



A Valedictory Address to a Literary Society. 



WHEN the request that I should deliver the usual valedictory 

 address to your society was submitted to me, I could not 

 avoid the thought that there had not been exercised that 

 strict law of "natural selection" which might be thought to 

 regulate the choice of your lecturer this evening. It is, 

 doubtless, a time-honoured custom that your annual closing 

 address should be delivered. But I apprehend the custom 

 has been hitherto exercised in the direction of asking 

 one of your literary leaders to say some words by way of 

 farewell for the session that is about to be closed, and to 

 give some counsel by way of encouragement and guidance 

 in the work that lies hidden and beyond. Why your present 

 choice should have fallen upon a representative of the 

 scientific rather than of the literary order remains a mystery, 

 into which it might be neither wise nor profitable for me 

 to enter. The thoughts, modelled on the wise saying, Ne 

 sutor ultra crepidam, which may have entered into my mind 

 ere I consented to address you, need not now be particu- 

 larised. Suffice it to say that I fully endorse the practical 

 wisdom of the proverb, and deem it to be thoroughly 

 applicable to all persons ambitious of seeking " pastures 

 new," and whether they be cobblers or no. 



Having consented to occupy your time and attention, the 

 selection of a theme formed an all-important matter for 

 decision. In plain deference to the aims and objects of 

 your society, I could not well address you on a topic purely 



