446 
NATURE 
[ Sept. 10, 1884 
to the utilities of life. Take the example of any man of 
learning, and see how soon the direct consequences resulting 
from it disappear in the life of a nation, while the discoveries of 
a man of science remain productive amid all the shocks of 
empire. As Iam in Aberdeen I remember that the learned 
Dutchman Erasmus was introduced to England by the en- 
couragement which he received from Hector Boece, the Prin- 
cipal of King’s College in this University. Yet even in the 
case of Erasmus—who taught Greek at Cambridge and did so 
much for the revival of classical literature as well as in the pro- 
motion of spiritual freedom—how little has civilisation to ascribe 
to him in comparison with the discoveries of two other Cam- 
bridge men, Newton and Cavendish. The discoveries of New- 
ton will influence the destinies of mankind to the cnd of the 
world. When he established the laws by which the motions of 
the great masses of matter in the universe are governed, he 
conferred an incalculable benefit upon the intellectual develop- 
ment of the human race. No great discovery flashes upon the 
world at once, and therefore Pope’s lines on Newton are only a 
poetic fancy :— 
““ Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night, 
God said, ‘ Let Newton be,’ and all was light.” 
No doubt the road upon which he travelled had been long in 
preparation by other men. The exact observations of Tycho 
Brahe, coupled with the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and 
Galileo had already broken down the authority of Aristotle and 
weakened that of the Church. But though the conceptions of 
the universe were thus broadened, mankind had not yet rid 
themselves of the idea that the powers of the universe were still 
regulated by spirits or special providences. Even Kepler moved 
the planets by spirits, and it took some time to knock these 
celestial steersmen on the head. Descartes, who really did so 
nuch by his writings to force the conclusion that the planetary 
movements should be dealt with as an ordinary problem in 
mechanics, looked upon the universe as a machine, the wheels 
of which were kept in motion by the unceasing exercise of a 
divine power. Yet such theories were only an attempt to regu- 
late the universe by celestial intelligences like our own, and by 
standards within our reach. It required the discovery of an all- 
pervading Jaw, universal throughout all space, to enlarge the 
thoughts of men, and one which, while it widened the concep- 
tions of the universe, reduced the earth and solar system to true 
dimensions. It is by the investigation of the finite on all sides 
that we obtain a higher conception of the infinite— 
“* Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten, 
Geh nur im Endlichen nach allen Seiten.” 
Ecclesiastical authority had been already undermined by earnest 
inquirers, such as Wycliffe and Huss, before Luther shook the 
pillars of the Vatican. They were removers of abuses, but 
were confined within the circles of their own beliefs. Newton’s 
discovery cast men’s minds into an entirely new mould, and 
levelled many barriers to human progress. This intellectual 
result was vastly more important than the practical advantages 
of the discovery. It is true that navigation and commerce 
mightily benefited by our better knowledge of the motions of 
the heavenly bodies. Still these benefits to humanity are in- 
comparably less in the history of progress than the expansion of 
the human intellect which followed the withdrawal of the cramps 
that confined it. Truth was now able to discard authority, and 
marched forward without hindrance. Before this point was 
reached Bruno had been burned, Galileo had abjured, and both 
Copernicus and Descartes had kept back their writings for fear 
of offending the Church. ; 
The recent acceptance of evolution in biology has had a like 
effect in producing a far profounder intellectual change in human 
thought than any mere impulse of industrial development. 
Already its application to sociology and education is recog- 
nised, but that is of less import to human progress than the 
broadening of our views of Nature. 
Abstract discovery in science is then the true foundation upon 
which the superstructure of modern civilisation is built ; and 
the man who would take part in it should study science, and, if 
he can, advance it for its own sake and not for its applications. 
Ignorance may walk in the path lighted by advancing know- 
ledge, but she is unable to follow when science passes her, for, 
like the foolish virgin, she has no oil in her lamp. 
An established truth in science is like the constitution of an 
atom in matter—something so fixed in the order of things that 
it has become independent of further dangers in the struggle for 
existence. The sum of such truths forms the intellectual treasure 
which descends to each generation in hereditary succession. 
Though the discoverer of a new truth is a benefactor to humanity, 
he can give little to futurity in comparison with the wealth of 
knowledge which he inherited from the past. We, in our 
generation, should appreciate and use our great possessions— 
“For me your tributary stores combine, 
Creation’s heir ; the world, the world is mine.” 
SECTION A. 
MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
OPENING ADDRESS BY Pror. G. CHRYSTAL, M.A., F.R.S.E., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
WHEN a man finds himself unexpectedly in some unusual 
situation his first impulse is to look around and see how others 
have done in like circumstances. I have accordingly run through 
the addresses of my predecessors in the honourable office of 
president of Section A, which is fated this year to be filled some- 
what unworthily. This examination has, I am bound to say, 
comforted me not a little. I have found precedents for all kinds 
of addresses, long and short, even apparently for none at all. 
The variety of subjects is also suggestive of great latitude. T 
have found reviews of the progress of mathematical and physical 
science, discussions of special scientific subjects, dissertations on 
the promotion of scientific research, and on the teaching and 
diffusion of science, all chosen in their turn for the subjects of 
this opening address. 
Following some of the most eminent of my forerunners, I pro- 
pose to be brief; following the last of them, Prof. Henrici, 
I shall take for my subject, so far as J have one, the Diffusion of 
Scientific Knowledge. Apart from the fact that Prof. Henrici’s 
address greatly interested me, and that I find many of his con- 
clusions in agreement with the results of my own experience, and 
that, therefore, I wish to second him with all my power, I have 
other reasons for this choice, For more than half the year lam 
employed with absolute continuity in teaching mathematics, and 
it has happened for the last eight years or so that the other half 
has been mainly occupied in a variety of ways with science- 
teaching generally. This is the thing concerning which I have 
had most experience, and I hold it to be the most respectful 
course towards my audience to speak to them on the subject that 
I know best. 
Eyer since I began to study science I have been deeply in- 
terested in the question of how it could best be taught. I believe 
my meditations in that direction were awakened by some un- 
successful boyish efforts to apply to the satisfaction of a plough- 
man, who was my friend and confidant, certain principles of 
natural philosophy to explain the action of his plough. Wisely 
and unwisely I have always been ardent about the improvement 
of scientific teaching. I was so long before I dreamt that I should 
one day be called upon to put my ideas through the cold ordeal 
of practice. It would not be becoming that I should speak at 
any time, more particularly to-day, regarding the success of my 
own efforts, or even regarding my alternate fits of hopefulness 
and despair. It is enough to say that, in such a cause, 
“Tis better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all.” 
The British Association, by its title, exists for the advancement 
of science. Now, I hold that one of the essential conditions for 
that advancement is the existence of a scientific public—a public, 
like the Athenians of old, eager to hear and tell of some new 
truth ; eager to discuss and eager to criticise ; ready to appreciate 
what is novel ; to receive it if sound, to reject it if unsound. It 
is to such a public that the British Association appeals, and 
certainly in the past it has not found its public wanting in 
generosity. What I should wish to see is less of mere friendly 
onlooking and more participation in the dance. 
I am not speaking now merely of a professional public, such 
as is so prominent in Germany for instance, made up of teachers 
and others professionally concerned with science. I refer mainly 
to that amateur but truly expert public which has always been so 
honourable a feature of English science, as examples of which I 
may mention Boyle and Cavendish in former days, and Joule 
and Spottiswoode in our own. It is quite true that much of that 
scientific public came in days of yore from the leisured class, 
whose ratio to the rest of the nation will not improbably decrease 
in the course of our social development. I think, however, that 
the loss we may thus sustain will be more than compensated by 
