IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 255 



and give their ability to serve their kind full 

 play. 



I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of 

 research occupies so prominent a place in your 

 official documents, and in the wise and liberal 

 inaugural address of your president. This subject 

 of the encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 the endowment of research, has of late years 

 greatly exercised the minds of men in England. 

 It was one of the main topics of discussion by 

 the members of the Royal Commission of whom 

 I was one, and who not long since issued their 

 report, after five years' labour. Many seem to 

 think that this question is mainly one of money ; 

 that you can go into the market and buy research, 

 and that supply will follow demand, as in the 

 ordinary course of commerce. This view does 

 not commend itself to my mind. I know of no 

 more difficult practical problem than the discovery 

 of a method of encouraging and supporting the 

 original investigator without opening the door to 

 nepotism and jobbery. My own conviction is 

 admirably summed up in the passage of your 

 president's address, " that the best investigators 

 are usually those who have also the responsibilities 

 of instruction, gaming thus the incitement of 

 colleagues, the encouragement of pupils, and the 

 observation of the public." 



At the commencement of this address I ventured 

 to assume that I might, if I thought fit, criticise 



