26 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



In medicine, as I have shown, all the knowledge we have of 

 parasitism has been acquired during the period under con- 

 sideration. 



There is no part of human life that has not been blessed by 

 the thought and labour of scientific men. Their work has 

 lightened the burden of human toil, and machines, to a large 

 extent, do man's drudgery. Their investigations have tended to 

 bring light and sweetness into all homes, be they those of peer or 

 peasant. The luxuries of our fathers have been the necessities 

 of our age. In a word, the outcome of the scientific study of the 

 Victorian era has been to save human labour, quicken it and facili- 

 tate it — has been to convert, multiply, and serve the riches of the 

 earth. And when we do this, " when we get at the secrets of 

 Nature and expound them, when we lay hold of the powers of 

 Nature and employ them, when we take possession of the riches 

 of Nature and dispose of them, when in the temple of this earth 

 we take our place as priests and ministers, then industry performs 

 its mighty work and fulfils its high destiny, then man is obedient 

 to the primitive commission, ' Have dominion over the earth and 

 subdue it.' " 



It has been too much the custom to speak of the practical 

 man as something altogether different from the theorist — that the 

 practical man was the hand working from experience, and with- 

 out knowing, and not caring about the why or wherefore — but, 

 after all, the hand only does what the head has devised, and the 

 really practical man is he who learns to understand the great 

 laws of Nature, and teaches men to work thereby. In closing, 

 then, this my third address to you, I plead for the study of 

 natural science, not for what the result may fetch in the world's 

 market place — not for what titles, honours, or stars it may win — 

 not even for what pleasure it may give to him who thus finds out 

 the hidden secrets, but because the science of to-day has 

 inter-penetrated all our social life, and is ever adding to the 

 sum of human happiness, and lessening the causes of human 

 sorrow. 



Our century draws to its close; it is the age of science ; but it will 

 be but the alphabet of what is yet to be. I suppose by nature I 

 am an optimist, and the older I grow I think the more optimistic I 

 become, and so I look forward and believe that the coming 

 years and the twentieth century will see strides made fast and 

 great — a science that shall produce achievements more marvel- 

 lous than those of our good Queen's reign, blessing by its 

 labours both rich and poor ; adding to the health and comfort of 

 the race — a continual process of development. The highest 



