TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 247 



rfhan speculation. And on the other hand, in mechanics, conclusions which depend 

 on experiments only are empirical ; that is, they are deficient in accuracy, and 

 ^their relation to the other phenomena of the science is left in darkness. Here, then, 

 we find in these two sciences not only how strong these two methods of investiga- 

 tion are, but how weak they may become if misapplied. _ 



I do not know whether any of my predecessors in this chair have experienced so 

 much difficulty, or have hesitated so long and so much as I have hesitated in select- 

 ing the topic to which he would ask your attention. My first effort was an attempt 

 to delineate the great recent progress of the mathematical and physical sciences, but 

 it was unsatisfactory, partly from my own too scanty powers, and also because the 

 variety and even disparity of the numerous sciences somewhat arbitrarily grouped 

 together in Section A gave to the outline too sketchy a character. My next 

 attempt was to make a selection among them, confining myself to those with which 

 I am best acquainted, and endeavouring to direct attention to the problems which 

 at the present time seem most to stand in need of solution. But here I felt 

 unwilling either to bring forward or to withhold views which might be disputed. I 

 then applied myself to the single consideration of what I hoped might prove useful and 

 not inopportune at a time when one university, which I trust will prove a great uni- 

 versity, is rising in the north of England, and when another university which has 

 carefully and successfully fostered a high standard of education for thirty years, and 

 which has thereby deserved and won the respect of educated men, has just been sacn- 

 ficedto ecclesiasticism in the sister isle. In this university I have held the most central 

 office for twenty-two years, and in the discharge of my duty had largely to influence 

 its destiny in respect to almost every educational problem. Parliament in its 

 wisdom has now seen fit to destroy this work, and I have not been without hope 

 that from the experience which has been gained some effect which shall last may 

 yet arise, and that the Queen's University may perhaps at its extinction bequeath a 

 useful legacy to the University of Victoria. The advancement of science in the 

 north of England will largely depend for many years on the wisdom of the regu- 

 lations for scientific training which are adopted at first by the new university ; and 

 I have therefore ventured, at this peculiar juncture, to submit to the judgment 

 of my scientific brethren the principles which much thought and many trials 

 extending over several years have led me to believe should guide them in selecting 

 this part of a curriculum. # . 



I have sought to show that it is in the study of mechanics and m the practice 

 of chemistry that the two great methods of investigation may best be acquired. In 

 them they may be studied separately, by steps of graduated difficulty, and with a 

 superabundance of materials ; and each of them supplies the necessary cautions 

 with respect to the method which is all powerful in the other. No scientific man 

 is really equipped for the pursuits in which both methods have to be employed till 

 he has separately acquired a grasp of each. For it is only then that he will be 

 armed against the errors which lead so many to mistake empiricism on the one 

 hand and speculation on the other for solid science, or to underrate solid science 

 mistaking it for speculation. Nor is it only in his scientific occupationsthat he 

 will derive benefit from this training. All exact reasoning, whether in science or 

 in common life, belongs to these great divisions ; and in the numberless instances 

 in which we must be satisfied with reasoning which falls short of being exact, our 

 only safety lies in having by the practice of exact reasoning, both deductive and 

 experimental, attained to that intellectual tact and caution which alone will enable 

 us to handle with safety the sharp and slippery tool. It is thus that a sound 

 judgment with regard to truth may best be acquired by man or woman ; and 

 soundness of judgment is the noblest endowment of man's understanding, just as 

 veracity stands first among his virtues. 



