PREFACE 



I YIELD to the suggestion that has been made to 

 me to print in book form selections from four of 

 my Presidential Addresses which treat of subjects 

 of general interest, namely, what science, as represented 

 by the Royal Society, has done and is doing now for the 

 nation ; and the place that science should take in 

 education. 



I do so in the hope that this tetralogy when separately 

 printed may promote, much more widely than it could 

 do if restricted to the publications of the Royal Society, 

 the objects which I set before me in these Addresses. 

 I desired to make better known the great work, hidden 

 indeed from public view, which at great cost to itself the 

 Royal Society, almost from its foundation to the present 

 time, has carried on with great benefit to the State, and 

 through it to the nation at large, outside and in addition 

 to the reading, discussion, and printing of papers of re- 

 search, which is its first duty as a Society for " the im- 

 proving of Natural Knowledge." 



My Address at the Anniversary of 1904 was devoted 

 to giving as full a sketch as the time allowed of the 



