748 EEPORT— 1897. 



Would not the suggestion of such a change, of such a spanning of great dis- 

 tances, of such a consequent growth of prosperity and of culture, within the reign 

 of a princess then approaching womanhood, have been received as the wildest of 

 forecasts by the British Association of 1831 ? 



Yet this is but one of a multitude of results, no less startling, which the same 

 agencies have brought about. We are now holding the second meeting of the 

 Association in Canada, and at the first such meeting, held thirteen years ago in 

 Montreal, some hundreds of miles nearer home, Sir Frederick Bramwell told you 

 from this chair, in his own inimitable way, the causes of so great a change, and he 

 pointed out to you, as I venture to point out again, that the visible instruments of 

 that change have been forged by the men who are, or were, or ought to be, the mem- 

 bers of Section Q. To such encouragement as Section G has given is largely due 

 the progress and triumph of applied mechanics as the natural outcome of theoretical 

 investigation and physical research. Finally, and with no reserve in the minds of 

 reasonable men. the old fallacy of a discord between theory and practice has been 

 swept away. For centuries that fallacy held apart, as it were, the oxygen and 

 the nitrogen of that atmosphere in which alone the new life could exist. It limited 

 the philosopher who examined the laws of nature almost entirely to the study of 

 phenomena external to the earth on which he dwelt, and it stamped the practical 

 man as a lower being, the possessor of certain necessary knowledge, having no 

 relation to the studies of the schoolmen, and which it would be beneath their 

 dignity to pursue. And notwithstanding the great names which have stood out in 

 opposition to these views, the popular idea of discord between theory and practice 

 took long to die, and only within the Victorian Age has the complete truth been 

 generally recognised, that if one fails to account for the result of any physical 

 combination, the cause is to be found not in any discord with theory, tjut in the 

 fact that the observer has failed to discover the whole of the theory. 



We English-speaking people, alone, I believe, among civilised nations, use this 

 word, theory, with unpardonable looseness — as almost s3'nonymous in effect with 

 hypothesis, and the result is fruitful of error. Until the truth of any hypothesis is 

 placed beyond all manner of doubt it is not, and should never be called, the 

 theory. 



Within these walls, the genius loci impels me to thoughts which have not 

 often entered into discussions of Section G ; and, perhaps, if this address were to 

 be discussed, I should choose subjects and premises, the proof of which, to the 

 satisfaction of others than myself, it would probably be less difficult to maintain. 

 In this University of Toronto under whose cegis all that was best in the older 

 schools of thought is cultivated by the side of those practical applications of 

 science which in bygone days were distinguished as the unworthy uses of philo- 

 sophy, one's thoughts insensibly turn to the marvellous change in the opportunities 

 afibrded for acquiring a knowledge of applied science — for beginning, in short, the 

 career of an engineer. 



It is not proposed to discuss the progress and prosperity which mechanical 

 science has brought about in the Victorian Era, much less that which the suc- 

 ceeding years will yield ; but I venture to think that a proper subject for con- 

 sideration from this chair, if not for discussion in this Section, is to be found in 

 any unnecessary waste of energy which may occur in the process of mental 

 development of the men who are to succeed us in the great work to which 

 we devote our lives. Obviously it is to the interests of our calling, and conse- 

 quently of the nation at large, that such waste should be reduced to a minimum, 

 and therefore I make no apology for mentioning certain points in which its presence 

 is particularly striking. There may be waste of potential, as well as of actual 

 energy, and if we fail to expend energy on certain subjects because our time 

 is occupied with others which are less useful, it is waste of energy only differ- 

 ing in degree from its expenditure on useless subjects. There is assuredly no lack 

 of potential energy in the coming race. In spite of any training, whether well oi" 

 ill directed, a large proportion will become actual and useful energy ; but guidance 

 and direction being given, the mode of that guidance and direction should be the 

 one best calculated to secure the highest possible proportion of useful effect. 



