24 DISCOVERY 



a short address, taking for his text the words : " Truth 

 abideth, and is strong for ever, she liveth and conquereth 

 for evermore . . . Blessed be the God of truth . . . 

 And all the people then shouted, and said, Great is truth 

 and strong above all things " (I. Esdras, iv. 38, 40, 41). 

 The familiar proverb, Magna est veritas, et praevalebit is 

 a slightly altered rendering of this text ; and no more 

 appropriate inspiration than it provides could be found 

 for an address to an assembly of men of science. For 

 the love of truth is the chief characteristic of the scientific 

 mind. 



It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion 

 regenerated, his every idea rationalised, by drinking at the foun- 

 tain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of 

 truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not understand 

 it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher. To an earlier 

 age knowledge was power merely that and nothing more to 

 us it is life and the summum bonum. C. S. Peirce. 



In the pursuit of truth the man of science spends his 

 days ; and for the defence of truth he is prepared to 

 stand against the world. From his earliest instruction 

 in the laboratory or the field to the end of his life, the 

 student of science is learning that by nothing but 

 faithful observation and truthful record can a satis- 

 factory conclusion be reached. Regard for truth becomes 

 part of his nature, and the investigations which lead to 

 it purify his life. Read the biography of any man who 

 gained distinction by his studies of Nature, and you will 

 find that he valued truthfulness above all other qualities 

 of a scientific mind. ' There is," said Lord Kelvin, 

 " one thing I feel strongly in respect to investigation in 

 physical or chemical laboratories it leaves no room 

 for shady, doubtful distinctions between truth, half- 

 truth, whole falsehood. In the laboratory everything 

 tested or tried is found true or not." 



