TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 867 



of Sir W. Grove's correlation of the physical forces in 1846 we have made con- 

 tinued advances in the same direction. 



What the future may have in store for us we cannot imatfine, but clearly if we 

 compare the facts known at the commencement of the nineteenth century with 

 those in our possession at the beginning of the twentieth century, we may look 

 forward to a still richer harvest of what Bacon calls ' fruits.' 



Lookinof hack upon the facts that I have been enabled, and I feel so imperfectly, 

 to brinfj before you, I have ' to answer ' the question with which we set out. 



Modern scieutific thought is due to an inquiry into Nature and her works, 

 irrespective of all preconceived theories, and the breaking away from the authority 

 which other departments of human thought and faith have in former ages imposed 

 upon some of the earlier inquirers into science. 



Faith in religion has been defined as ' the substance of things hoped for, the 

 evidence of thinf;;s not seen,' which is altogether apart from the other and wider 

 faith with which the scientific inquirer contemplates that vast, that stupendous, 

 that beautiful universe which has been revealed to him by the teaching of his pre- 

 decessors, and which inspires him with those hopes to which I have just alluded. 



On the teaching of the ancients Bacon remarks : ' The opinion which men 

 entertain of antiquity is a very idle thing, and almost incongruous to the world ; 

 for the old age and length of days of the world should in reality be accounted anti- 

 quity, and ought to be attributed to onr own times, not to the youth of the world 

 which is enjoyed among the ancients, for that age, though with respect to us it be 

 ancient and greater, yet with regard to the world it was new and less.' 



This idea is perhaps more and more beautifully expressed by Tennyson in the 

 words ' I, the heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time.' 



And in another respect, taking Bacon's teaching which he so often reiterates, as 

 being a search after fruits, we must not imagine that the fruits of which he speaks 

 are necessarily to be gathered in by the worker himself. For the pursuit of true 

 science is often hindered by the too greedy effort to grasp the sordid rewards of 

 the present, and, alas ! Bacon himself will ever stand as a most painful example 

 of the depth of degradation to which even the highest minds may fall. 



We must learn from Nature what she is connnually teaching, that her efforts 

 are directed, not solely for the benefit of the individual, but for the welfare and 

 the advancement of the race. 



The fruits and the rewards which grow from a study of Nature, and a truly 

 scientific effort to expound her laws, are of a higher and a wider scope. 



And in contemplating the work of the great men of the past with whose names 

 we have been so freely dealing, looking at the present attitude of the scientific 

 mind, and our share in the application and directing of those great sources of 

 power in Nature, we may say : 



' No more a wind-borne leaf upon the waves 

 Of time and chance, but one to whom is given, 

 To help the mighty purpose of the world, 

 To straighten crooked paths, to smooth the bills 

 Of sin and sorrow, that on some bright day 

 The great wheels of the world may run their course 

 Without one jar or check.' 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Water Siqjphj, vnth a Description of the Bradford Walerivorks. 

 Bij J. Watson, MJnst.C.E.^ 



2. The Disposal of HouseRef use inBradjord. By J.McTAGGAm, A.3LI.M.F. 



The author gave particulars as to the quantity of refuse collected, the quantity 

 destroyed by the destructors, and of the quantity tipped or sold. 



' Published in exlenso, Bradford, 1900. 



3K2 



