THE ROYAL SOCIETY AND THE STATE 



methods of our higher public schools, and can only be 

 slowly removed by making in future the teaching of science, 

 not from text-books for passing an examination, but, as 

 far as may be possible, from the study of the phenomena 

 of Nature by direct observation and experiment, an integral 

 and essential part of all education in this country. 



[The Royal Society is an institution which has not 

 only devoted itself to the prosecution of pure science, and 

 has encouraged and helped on the application of science 

 to national undertakings, but has raised the standard 

 of thought and of living of the nation. With the growth 

 of the Society since its foundation, how greatly have the 

 thoughts of men been widened by the process of the suns. 

 The fairy-tales of science, now so familiar, make us the 

 more eager for the further progress which the coming 

 years shall bring, especially for more knowledge of the 

 relation of the phenomena of Nature to ourselves, and for a 

 wider philosophy in the light of which the domains of the 

 living and of the non-living shall be seen to lose themselves 

 in a common realm of harmony and light ; in a word, 

 for the coming vision of the world and all the wonder that 

 shall be. For wonder is a fruit of natural knowledge as 

 well as its root. Alas ! for us creatures of a moment 

 science moves slowly, creeping on from point to point. 

 Still, at no time in the past has the pace of scientific progress 

 been so rapid ; at no time so imminent the clearing away 

 of the mist of the unknown from many points of strategic 

 importance for the conquest of more knowledge of the 



