THE EMANCIPATION OF HUMANITY 51 



science, but because it is the one of most general 

 practical importance. 



The elevating influences of the study of Nature, 

 the sublime emotions awakened by the spectacle of 

 the mists being slowly dissipated from the veiled 

 countenance of Truth, are at least as potent as any 

 encountered by man in his persistent and unwearing 

 dissection of his own self. But, distinct from this, 

 science is unique in pointing the way to the realisation 

 of that necessary practical antecedent of all that 

 makes life universally holy rather than animal. 

 Neglect it, and the finer voices may call, but the 

 ears that should hear will be dull. 



There may be a tendency on the part of some 

 of my audience to regard science as something 

 particularly associated with the waging of war and to 

 look upon scientific men as a class as under the 

 suspicion of being in the pay of the great armament 

 firms of the world, and as finding, in the universal 

 race for armaments, the most profitable and natural 

 outlet for their inventive and productive genius. 

 Whether or not I am mistaken in that impression, 

 at least it can hardly be gainsaid that this point of 

 view is foremost in the minds of those most influential 

 and vocal of the leaders of public opinion, to whom, 

 for the most part, the war has discovered the 

 importance and indispensability of science for the 

 first time. 



I wish to-night, if I can, to do something first to 

 combat this false impression. It is true, of course, at 

 the moment that scientific researches and inquiries 

 are now very largely suspended, and that the energies 

 of scientific men in this country have almost wholly 

 been drawn into the vortex, in common with the rest 

 of the energies of the nation. Scientific men here 

 now, as much or more than any other class, are 

 concerned with science no longer, but only with its 



