528 REPORT— 1883. 
reasonable self-interest shall be man’s guide. We do not contend for any such theory. 
By reasoning we may explain and trace the development of human nature, but we 
cannot change it by any such process. It is demonstrably unreasonable for the 
individual man, guided by self-interest, to share the dangers and privations of his 
brother-man, and yet, in common with many lower animals, he has an inherited 
quality which makes it a pleasure to him to do so; it is unreasonable for the 
mother to protect her offspring, and yet it is the natural and inherited quality of 
mothers to derive pleasure from doing so; it is unreasonable for the half-starved 
poor to aid their wholly starving brethren, and yet such compassion is natural and 
pleasurable to those who show it, and is the constant rule of life. Unreasonable 
though these things are from the point of view of individual self-interest, yet they 
are done because to do them is pleasurable, to leave them undone a pain. The race 
has, as it were, in these respects befooled the individual, and in the course of evo- 
lution has planted in him, in its own interests, an irrational capacity for taking 
pleasure in doing that which no reasoning in regard to self-interest could justify. 
‘As with these lower and more widely distributed instincts, shared by man with 
some lower social animals, so is it with this higher and more peculiar instinct— 
the tendency to pursue new knowledge. Whether reasonable or not, it has by the 
laws of heredity and selection become part of us and exists: its operation is bene- 
ficial to the race: its gratification is a source of keen pleasure to the individual—an 
end in itself. "We may safely count upon it as a factor in human nature; it is in 
our power to cultivate and develop it, or, on the other hand, to starve and distort 
it for a while, though to do so is to waste time in opposing the irresistible. 
As day by day the old-fashioned stimulus to the higher life loses the dread con- 
trol which it once exercised over the thoughts of men, the pursuit of wealth and 
the indulgence in fruitless gratifications of sense become to an increasing number 
the chief concerns of their mental life. Such occupations fail to satisfy the deep 
desires of humanity ; they become wearisome and meaningless, so that we hear men 
questioning whether life be worth living. When the dreams and aspirations of the 
youthful world have lost their old significance and their strong power to raise 
men’s lives, it will be well for that community which has organised in time a following 
of and a reverence for an ideal Good, which may serve to lift the national mind 
above the level of sensuality and to ensure a belief in the hopefulness and worth of 
life. The faith in Science can fill this place—the progress of Science is an ideal 
Good, sufficient to exert this great influence. 
It is for this reason more than any other, as it seems to those who hold this 
faith, that the progress and diffusion of scientific research, its encouragement and 
reverential nurture, should be a chief business of the community, whether collectively 
or individually, at the present day. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. On the Origin and Development of the Rhinoceros Group. 
By W.B. Scorr and H. F. Osporne. 
The oldest known member of this line is the genus Orthocynodon (Scott and 
Osborne), from the lower strata of the great Bridger basin of Wyoming, belonging 
to the Middle Eocene of America, which is very rich in perissodactyl types. 
Among these the Lophiodontide occupy a prominent position ; they are probably 
the ancestors of both rhinoceros and tapir, and Orthocynodon may be characterised 
as a lophiodont with rhinoceros-like molars. The authors proceed to review the 
relative positions of Aceratherium, Diceratherium, and Hyracodon. 
2. On the Differences between the Males and Females of the Pearly Nautilus." 
By A. G. Bourns. 
1 Published in the Transactions of the Zoological Society. 
