)90 



NA TURE 



[August 15, 1901 



general ]}rinciple is involved. Joule and Robert Mayer, who 

 proved ihe equivalence of heat and work, have had far more 

 influence on succeeding ages than even the discoverers above 

 mentioned, for they have imbued a multitude of minds with a 

 correct understanding of the nature of energy and the possi- 

 bility of converting it economically into that form in which it is 

 most directly useful for the purpose in view. They have laid 

 the basis of reasoning for machines : and it is on machines, 

 instruments for converting unavailable into available energy, 

 that the prosperity of the human race depends. 



You will see from these instances that it is in reality " philo- 

 sophy " or a love of wisdom which, after all, is most to be 

 sought after. Like virtue, it is its own reward ; and as we all 

 hope is the case with virtue too, it brings other rewards in its 

 train, not, be it remarked, always to the philosopher, but to 

 the race. Virtue, pursued with the direct object of gain, is a 

 poor thing ; indeed, it can hardly be termed virtue if it is 

 dimmed by a motive. So philosophy, if followed after for profit, 

 loses its meaning. 



But I have omitted to mention another motive which makes 

 for research : it is a love of pleasure. I can conceive no 

 pleasure greater than that of the poet — the maker — who wreathes 

 beautiful thoughts with beautiful words ; but next to this I 

 would place the pleasure of discovery, in whatever sphere it be 

 made. It is a pleasure, not merely to the discoverer, but to all 

 who can follow the train of his reasoning. And after all, the 

 pleasure of the human race, or of the thinking portion of it, 

 counts for a good deal in this life of ours. 



To return. Attempts at research, guided by purely utili- 

 tarian motives, generally fail in their object, or at least are 

 not likely to be so productive as research without ulterior 

 motive. I am strengthened in this conclusion by the verdict 

 of an eminent German who has himself put the principle into 

 practice ; who after following out a purely theoretical line of 

 experiment, which at first appeared remote from profit, has 

 been rewarded by its remunerative utilisation. He remarked, 

 incidentally, that the professors in polytechnika — (what we 

 should term technical colleges, intended to prepare young men 

 for the profession of engineering and technical chemistry) — 

 were less known for their influence on industry than Uni- 

 versity professors. The aim is different in the two cases ; the 

 polytechnika train men for a profession, the philosophical faculty 

 of German Universities aims at imparting a love of knowledge ; 

 and, as a matter of fact, the latter pay in their influence on the 

 prosperity of the nation better than the former. And this brings 

 me to the fundamental theme of my oration. It is this : — 

 That the best preparation for success in any calling is the training 

 of the student in methods of research. This should be the goal 

 to be clearly kept in view by all teachers in the philosophical 

 faculties of Universities. They should teach with this object : — 

 to awaken in their students a love of their subject and a con- 

 sciousness that if he persevere, he, too, will be able to extend its 

 bounds. 



Of course, it is necessary for the student to learn, so far as is 

 possible, what has already been done. I would not urge that a 

 young man should not master, or at all events learn, a great deal 

 of what has been already discovered before he attempts to soar 

 on his own wings. But there is all the difference in the world 

 between the point of view of the student who reads in order to 

 qualify for an examination, or to gain a prize or a scholarship, 

 and the student who reads because he knows that thus he will 

 acquire knowledge which may be used as a basis of new know- 

 ledge. It is that spirit in which our Universities in England 

 are so lamentably deficient ; it is that spirit which has contri- 

 buted to the success of the Teutonic nations, and which is be- 

 ginning to influence the United States. For this condition of 

 things our examinational system is largely to blame ; originally 

 started to cure the abuses of our Civil Service, it has eaten into 

 the vitals of our educational system like a canker, and it is 

 fostered by the further abuse of awarding scholarships as the 

 results of examinations. The pauperisation of the richer classes 

 is a crying evil ; it must some day be cured. Let scholarships 

 be awarded to those who need them, not to those whose fathers 

 can well afford to pay for the education of their children. " Pot- 

 hunting " and philosophy have absolutely nothing in common. 



It follows that the teachers in the philosophical faculty should 

 be selected only from those who are themselves contributing to the 

 advancement of knowledge ; for if they have not the spirit of 

 research in them, how shall they instil it into others ? It is our 



NO. 1659, VOL. 64] 



carelessness in this respect (I do not speak of University Col- 

 lege, which has always been guided by these principles, but of 

 our country as a whole) which has made us so backward as com- 

 pared with some other nations. It is this which has made the 

 vast majority of our statesmen so careless, because so ignorant, 

 of the whole frame of mind of the philosopher, and which 

 has made it possible for a man high in the political estima- 

 tion of his countrymen to address on a recent occasion 

 the remarks which he did to graduates of our University. 

 It is true that one of the functions of a University is to 

 " trai.i men and women fit for the manifold require- 

 ments of the Empire : " that we should all heartily acknow- 

 ledge ; but no man who has any claim to University culture 

 can possibly be contented if th? University does not 

 annually produce much work of research. It is its chief 

 excuse for existence ; a University which does not increase 

 knowledge is no University ; it may be a technical school, it 

 may be an examining board, it may be a coaching establish- 

 ment, but it has no claim to the name University. The best 

 way of fitting young men for the manifold requirements of the 

 Empire is to give them the power of advancing knowledge. 



It may be said that many persons are incapable of exhibit- 

 ing originality. I doubt it. There are many degrees of 

 originality, as there are many degrees in rhyming, from the 

 writer of doggerel to the poet, or many degrees of musical ear, 

 from the man who knows two tunes, the tune of "God Save 

 the King" and the ofkir tune, to the accomplished musician. 

 But in almost all cases, if caught young the human being can 

 be trained, more or less, and, as a matter of fact, natural 

 selection plays its part. Those young men and women who 

 have no natural aptitude for such work — and they are usually 

 known by the lack of interest which they take in it — 

 do not come to the University. My experience is that the 

 majority, or at least a fair percentage of those who do come, 

 possess germs of the faculty of originating, germs capable of 

 development, in many instances, to a very high degree. It is 

 such persons who are of most value to the country ; it is from 

 them that advance in literature and in science is to be ex- 

 pected, and many of them will contribute to the commercial 

 prosperity of the country. We hear much nowadays o- 

 technical education ; huge sums of money are being annually 

 expended on the scrappy scientific education in evening classes 

 of men who have passed a hard day in manual labour, men 

 who lack the previous training necessary to enable them 

 to profit by such instruction. It may be that it is desirable 

 to provide such intellectual relaxation ; I even grant that 

 such means may gradually raise the intellectual level of the 

 country ; but the investment of money in promoting such schemes 

 is not the one likely to bear the most immediate and 

 remunerative fruit. The Universities should be the technical 

 schools ; for the man who has learned to investigate can bring 

 his talents to bear on any subject brought under his notice, and 

 it is on the advance, and not the mere dissemination, of know- 

 ledge that the prosperity of a country depends. To learn to 

 investigate requires a long and hard apprenticeship ; the power 

 cannot be acquired by an odd hour spent now and again ; it is 

 as difficult to become a successful investigator as a successful 

 barrister or doctor, and it requires at least as hard application 

 and as long a period of study. 



I do not believe that it is possible for young men or 

 women to devote sufficient time during the evening to such 

 work. Those who devote their evening hours to study and 

 investigation do not bring fresh brains to bear on the sub- 

 ject ; they are already fatigued by a long day's work ; and, 

 moreover, it is the custom in most of the colleges which have 

 evening classes to insist upon their teachers doing a certain 

 share of day work ; they, too, are not in a fit state to direct 

 the work of their pupils or to make suggestions as to the best 

 method of carrying it out. Moreover, the official evening class 

 is from 7 to 10 o'clock, and for investigation in science a spell of 

 three hours at a time is barely sufficient to carry out successfully 

 the end in view ; indeed, an eight hours' day might profitably be 

 lengthened into a twelve hours' day, as it not infrequently is. 

 It IS heartrending in the middle of some important experiment 

 to be obliged to close and postpone it till a future occasion, when 

 much of the work must necessarily be done over again. 



These are some of the reasons why I doubt whether University 

 education, in the philosophical faculty at |least, can be success- 

 fully given by means of evening classes. 



