NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE 

 JAMES BRYCE 



Ambassador from Great Britain 



AMBASSADOR BRYCE: Dr. Woodward, President Remsen 

 and Gentlemen: I am very much touched by the kind words in 

 which my old friend, Dr. Woodward, has introduced me to you, 

 and I am more than grateful to you for the way in which you are 

 kind enough to receive me. It does make one happy to be so 

 received and to be assured that one has not lived in this country 

 six years without having acquired some friendliness on the part 

 of its people. 



But, apart from that, gentlemen, I stand before you this 

 evening as a rather unhappy man, because it is the last evening 

 on which I am likely to have the privilege — -at any rate, in an 

 official capacity — of meeting an audience of American men of 

 science. 



One of the most delightful parts of my sojourn in Washington 

 has been my intercourse with your men of science. There is not 

 any city in America — I doubt if there be any city in Europe — 

 where so many men of eminence in science are assembled as live 

 in Washington, and the gatherings which you have here, when 

 the men of science from the whole of your wide country come 

 together, have been among the most delightful experiences that I 

 or any Briton has had in this country. I have had it also in 

 Philadelphia and in New York, and I have had the pleasure of 

 making the acquaintance of your men of science in many journeys 

 all over the country; but this, after all, is the focus to which is 

 gathered most of the scientific lights and leaders of the United 

 States at stated intervals when you come together here. 



And I can assure you, gentlemen, there is nothing I shall look 

 back to with more pleasure, in so much of life as remains to me, 

 as to the friendships I had formed with your scientific men and 

 the inspiration I have derived from the ardor and energy with 

 which they pursue the studies to which we are all so much 

 debtors. 



