PREFACE 



advisory relation in which the Society has stood to the 

 Government, and of some of the more important public 

 works and questions which in the past the Society has 

 initiated, supported, or given advice about in connection 

 with the State ; and at the same time to pointing out the 

 large number of responsible public duties which to-day 

 rest permanently upon it, through which the Society 

 makes its influence felt strongly for the good of the 

 nation. 



Another object I had in view was to rouse attention 

 to one of the most important of the practical questions 

 of the day, if we are to fulfil our mission as a great nation, 

 the necessity of giving science its proper place in all 

 education. In the Address given in 1902, this subject 

 is considered mainly in respect of the supreme influence 

 of science on the industries of the nation ; while in the 

 latter part of the Address of last year the intrinsic intel- 

 lectual value of the teaching of science as a means of 

 enlarging the powers of the mind takes the first place, 

 together with its relative value in education as compared 

 with humanistic studies. 



The first part of the Address of 1905 discusses the 

 profound influence which the discoveries of science, in 

 great part the work of the Fellows of the Royal Society, 

 have had upon the general life and thought of the world, 

 especially during the last fifty years. 



The remaining Address, given in 1903, considers the 

 remarkable change in the position of the Royal Society 



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