ADDRESS. 21 



it is good policy to consult first the writers of highest general reputation. 

 Although in scientific matters we should aim at independent judgment, 

 and not rely too much upon authority, it remains true that a good deal 

 must often be taken upon trust. Occasionally an observation is so simple 

 and easily repeated, that it scarcely matters from whom it proceeds ; but 

 as a rule it can hardly carry full weight when put forward by a novice 

 whose care and judgment there has been no opportunity of testing, and 

 whose irresponsibility may tempt him to ' take shots,' as it is called. 

 Those who have had experience in accurate work know how easy it would 

 be to save time and trouble by omitting precautions and passing over 

 discrepancies, and yet, even without dishonest intention, to convey the 

 impression of conscientious attention to details. Although the mo3t 

 careful and experienced cannot hope to escape occasional mistakes, the 

 effective value of this kind of work depends much upon the reputation of 

 the individual responsible for it. 



In estimating the present position and prospects of experimental 

 science, there is good ground for encouragement. The multiplication of 

 laboratories gives to the younger generation opportunities such as have 

 never existed before, and which excite the envy of those who have had to 

 learn in middle life much that now forms part of an undergraduate course. 

 As to the management of such institutions there is room for a healthy 

 difference of opinion. For many kinds of original work, especially in 

 connection with accurate measurement, there is need of expensive 

 apparatus ; and it is often difficult to persuade a student to do his best 

 with imperfect appliances when he knows that by other means a better 

 result could be attained with greater facility. Nevertheless it seems 

 to me important to discourage too great reliance upon the instrument 

 maker. Much of the best original work has been done with the homeliest 

 appliances ; and the endeavour to turn to the best account the means 

 that may be at hand develops ingenuity and resource more than the most 

 elaborate determinations with ready-made instruments. There is danger 

 otherwise that the experimental education of a plodding student should 

 be too mechanical and artificial, so that he is puzzled by small changes of 

 apparatus much as many school-boys are puzzled by a transposition of 

 the letters in a diagram of Euclid. 



From the general spread of a more scientific education, we are war- 

 ranted in expecting important results. Just as there are some brilliant 

 literary men with an inability, or at least a distaste practically amounting 

 to inability, for scientific ideas, so there are a few with scientific tastes 

 whose imaginations are never touched by merely literary .studies. To 

 save these from intellectual stagnation during several important years of 

 their lives is something gained ; but the thorough- going advocates of 

 scientific education aim at much more. To them it appears strange, and 

 almost monstrous, that the dead languages should hold the place they do 

 in general education ; and it can hardly be denied that their supremacy is 



