90 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



ties are dominated, in a degree which is hardly 

 realized by those who have not taught there, by 

 traditional ways of thought. They do not greatly 

 encourage research; and the energies of their 

 ablest men are mostly absorbed in teaching on 

 well-established lines. The newer Universities 

 have at least greater freedom, and greater power 

 of self-adaptation to new needs. I remember 

 reading the first address of your Chancellor to 

 this University ; and it seemed to me that although 

 he was no professed savant, yet he had a broader 

 and a saner notion of the functions of a University 

 than was usually current in the older academic 

 bodies. You are the brain of a great working 

 community ; and such a community needs to think 

 not only of business success, but of all sides of 

 human life and action. 



I know that you have in Birmingham had your 

 attention called before to the overwhelming im- 

 portance of human science. Some of my dis- 

 tinguished predecessors, Sir Francis Galton and 

 Mr. Karl Pearson have spoken here with the 

 greatest ability and the highest authority on the 

 question of heredity, and other subjects which are 

 on the border-line between biology and the 

 humanities. Doubtless these and similar studies 

 are pursued here in some degree by teachers. It 

 is difficult to over-express our obligations to those 

 who carry on researches which have such direct 

 bearing on the future of mankind. In such 

 matters as these I am only a learner. But I have 



