ADDRESS. 5 
II. Science and the State. 
I cannot address you in Aberdeen without recollecting that when we 
last met in this city our President was a great prince. The just verdict 
of time is that, high as was his royal rank, he has a far nobler claim to 
our regard as a lover of humanity in its widest sense, and especially as a 
lover of those arts and sciences which do so much to adorn it. On 
September 14, 1859, I sat on this platform and listened to the eloquent 
address and wise counsel of the Prince Consort. At one time a member 
of his household, it was my privilege to co-operate with this illustrious 
prince in many questions relating to the advancement of science. I 
naturally, therefore, turned to his presidential address to see whether I 
might not now continue those counsels which he then gave with all the 
breadth and comprehensiveness of his masterly speeches, I found, as I 
expected, a text for my own discourse in some pregnant remarks which 
he made upon the relation of Science to the State. They are as 
follows :—‘ We may be justified in hoping . . . that the Legislature and 
the State will more and more recognise the claims of science to their 
attention, so that it may no longer require tlie begging-box, but speak to 
the State like a favoured child to its parent, sure of his paternal solicitude 
for its welfare; that the State will recognise in science one of its elements 
of strength and prosperity, to foster which the clearest dictates of self- 
interest demand.’ 
This opinion, in its broadest sense, means that the relations of science 
to the State should be made more intimate because the advance of science 
is needful to the public weal. 
The importance of promoting science as a duty of statecraft was well 
enough known to the ancients, especially to the Greeks and Arabs, but it 
ceased to be recognised in the dark ages, and was lost to sight during the 
revival of letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Germany and 
France, which are now in such active competition in promoting science, 
have only publicly acknowledged its national importance in recent times. 
Eyen in the last century, though France had its Lavoisier and Germany 
its Leibnitz, their Governments did not know the value of science. When 
the former was condemned to death in the Reign of Terror, a petition was 
presented to the rulers that his life might be spared for a few weeks in 
order that he might complete some important experiments, but the reply 
was, ‘The Republic has no need of savants.’ Harlier in the century the 
much-praised Frederick William of Prussia shouted with a loud voice, 
during a graduation ceremony in the University of Frankfort, ‘ An ounce 
of mother-wit is worth a ton of university wisdom.’ Both France and 
Germany are now ashamed of these utterances of their rulers, and make 
energetic efforts to advance science with the aid of their national resources. 
More remarkable is it to see a young nation like the United States reserv- 
ing large tracts of its national lands for the promotion of scientific 
education. In some respects this young country is in advance of all 
