u6 GERMAN SCIENCE 



have been saved by the knowledge and guidance that science 

 could have supplied. It is difficult to substantiate such a 

 statement, impossible, of course,, to adduce the very instances. 

 But I do not make the statement lightly or hastily. It 

 expresses what is to me not a mere surmise but something as 

 certain as anything can be that from its nature cannot be 

 absolutely proved. 



If I am asked to go to the root of matters and say what I 

 really believe it is that has underlain English neglect of science, 

 I am afraid I should enter into regions where my cause might 

 be better served by silence than by speech. I will therefore 

 tell you frankly that I will not say all that is in my mind. 

 There is a tacit understanding among the teachers of our 

 university, and I believe it is a very wise one, that we put 

 some restraint upon the public expressions of our purely 

 personal opinions. But this much I may say freely, that the 

 pursuit of science in this country has been subject to uneasy 

 suspicion. Of the forms of suspicion I will only mention two. 



I daresay some of you may know that in the University of 

 Oxford an honour student of natural science is commonly 

 known among other sections as ' a stinks man '. It is, of 

 course, a playful term, which it would be ridiculous to take 

 seriously. At the same time there is many a true word 

 spoken in jest, and much serious opinion may be concentrated 

 in words that can be given to a child to lisp. I do not be- 

 lieve that the terse expression to which I have referred was 

 invented by an undergraduate. I think it much more prob- 

 able that it came as a bright inspiration to some prodigiously 

 learned don and was quietly dropped by him in some under- 

 graduate's room. If I do not know the very don in question, 

 I know his double, nay, his centuple. 



What I mean is this, that science as commonly taught, as 

 commonly pursued in this country has not seemed edifying to 

 the man of letters ; and the man of letters, until these later 



