28 PROFESSORS AND PRACTICAL MEN 
continuous flow of the most highly trained purely scientific 
chemists from the universities to the works. I found likewise 
that, in other industries to which chemistry is applicable, there 
was a similar demand for scientific brains, and that in Germany 
as a whole there was a well-established understanding between 
science and industry very different from anything I knew of in 
my Own country. 
You are no doubt familiar with all this; you have heard it 
before again and again. I repeat it in order to show you how 
natural it is that English men of science, who have had 
experience of the system of things in Germany, should be pro- 
foundly impressed by its value to the nation. It is not 
surprising that they should loudly proclaim its excellence and 
commend it to their own countrymen. Yet it is very easy for 
people who are imbued by an enthusiasm for something dis- 
covered abroad, to forget two things—first, that transplantation 
is sometimes as difficult and as disastrous for political and 
educational systems as it is for living things. And, again, we 
are very apt in some circumstances to forget, or under-rate, the 
excellencies of our own peculiar possessions. When we are 
among the snowy peaks of Switzerland, or in the lazy sunshine 
of a southern sea, we may do scant justice to the quiet beauty 
of an English landscape or to the invigorating spirit of our 
stormy island shores. I am sure that, among the class to which 
I belong, there is a danger of under-estimating the deep-seated 
powers of Englishmen; of neglecting the true genius of our 
countrymen ; and, in short, of falling into a narrow-mindedness 
which tends to put us out of sympathy with the people we 
desire toserve. I think that no one who has studied the history 
of our industrial development, or has moved observantly among 
our industrial community, can have failed to be impressed by 
the great native capacity of the Englishman for practical affairs. 
The quality is one exceedingly difficult to define. It is very 
elusive ; but it is there—this power of doing things—a power 
