NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 61 



perhaps, may be accepted as my excuse for indulging in 

 them. There are, and always have been, dreamers in 

 Oxford, and beautiful dreams they have dreamed some 

 of the past, and some of the future. The most fascinat- 

 ing dreams are not, unfortunately, always realized ; but 

 it is sometimes worth while to tell one's dream, for that 

 may bring it a step nearer to ' coming true.' 



to say, to a knowledge of Nature, a test question in all political contests. 

 No candidate for Parliament would receive the votes of the union unless 

 he were either himself educated in a knowledge of Nature or promised 

 his support exclusively to ministers who would insist on the utilization 

 of nature-knowledge in the administration of the great departments of 

 State, and would take active measures of a financial character to 

 develop with far greater rapidity and certainly than is at present the 

 case, that inquiry into and control of Nature which is the indispensable 

 factor in human welfare and progress. Such a programme will, I hope, 

 at no distant date obtain the support of a sufficient number of parlia- 

 mentary voters to raise political questions of a more genuine and 

 interesting character than those which many find so tedious at the 

 present moment. 



