Professors and Practical Men‘ 
T has been a fixed ambition of my life to play a worthy 
part in adapting education to the’needs of the busy world. 
You will understand then—though I cannot believe you will 
understand fully—how deeply I feel, and how much I prize, the 
honour you have done me in placing me in the presidential chair 
of a society that consists of men engaged in directing and execut- 
ing the business of a large and importantsection of British indus- 
try. My position arises, I know, from the circumstance that I 
have taken part in the establishment of a memorial to that great 
and noble man, George Livesey, who a short while ago was in 
your ranks and whose former occupancy of this chair makes it 
for ever a seat of honour. 
I am sure that you will not expect from me more than is 
reasonable. You know (as, happily, I do also) that any attempt 
of mine to comment or generalize upon the great majority of 
the questions that concern you, would only lead me to disaster. 
Your work, I know, is full of anxious problems. The gas 
industries are in a state of tumultuous development; you do 
not know what a day may bring forth in the way of changes, 
great or small. Vigilance, enterprise, skill of all kinds are 
called for with an insistence that ever increases. It would be 
srateful to your ears to hear the voice of the true prophet, and to 
have an unquestionable forecast of your future tasks. Astrology 
and alchemy were, it is true, kindred pursuits, and it is said 
that modern chemistry is approaching alchemy ; but I will not 
take upon myself to cast. your horoscope. 
? Presidential address to the Society of.British Gas Industries, delivered 
at Leeds on March 3, 1911. 
2461 D 
