368 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 
heredity and teach eugenics arouses odd feelings in his mind; if he feels the 
fascination which comes of the importance of such inquiries, he is also prepared 
to hear that the subtlety of Nature grows with our knowledge of her. Doubt- 
less, too, he wishes he had some participation in the discovery of the laws of 
wireless telegraphy, or had something to say in regard to the improvement of 
internal-combustion engines or the stability of aeroplanes; it is little compensa- 
tion to remember, though the mathematical physicist is his most tormenting 
critic, what those of his friends who have the physical instinct used to say on 
the probable development of these things, however well he may recall it. 
But it is not logical to believe that they who are called visionary because of 
their devotion to creatures of the imagination can be unmoved by these things. 
Nor is it at all just to assume that they are less conscious than others of the 
practical importance of them, or less anxious that they should be vigorously 
prosecuted. 
Why is it, then, that their systematic study is given to other things, and not 
of necessity, and in the first instance, to the theory of any of these concrete 
phenomena? ‘This is the question I try to answer. I can only give my own 
impression, and doubtless the validity of an answer varies as the accumulation 
of data, made by experimenters and observers, which remains unutilised at any 
time. 
The reason, then, is very much the same as that which may lead a man to 
abstain from piecemeal indiscriminate charity in order to devote his attention and 
money to some well-thought-out scheme of reform which seems to have promise 
of real amelioration. One turns away from details and examples, because one 
thinks that there is promise of fundamental improvement of methods and 
principles. This is the argumentum ad hominem. But there is more than that. 
The improvement of general principles is arduous, and if undertaken only with 
a view to results may be illtimed and disappointing. But as soon as we con- 
sciously give ourselves to the study of universal methods for their own sake 
another phenomenon appears. The mind responds, the whole outlook is enlarged, 
infinite possibilities of intellectual comprehension, of mastery of the relations of 
things, hitherto unsuspected, begin to appear on the mental horizon. I am well 
enough aware of the retort to which such a statement is open. But, I say, inter- 
pret the fact as you will, our intellectual pleasure in life cometh not by might 
nor by power—arises, that is, most commonly, not of set purpose—but lies at the 
mercy of the response which the mind may make to the opportunities of its 
experience. When the response proves to be of permanent interest—and for 
how many centuries have mathematical questions been a fascination ?7—we do well 
to regard it. Let us compare another case which is, I think, essentially the same. 
It may be that early forms of what now is specifically called Art arose with a 
view to applications; I do not know. But no one will deny that Art, when once 
it has been conceived by us, is a worthy object of pursuit; we know by a long 
trial that we do wisely to yield ourselves to a love of beautiful things, and to the 
joy of making them. Well, Pure Mathematics, as such, 7s an Art, a creative Art. 
If its past triumphs of achievement fill us with wonder, its future scope for 
invention is exhaustless and open to all. It is also a Science. For the mind of 
man is one; to scale the peaks it spreads before the explorer is to open ever new 
prospects of possibility for the formulation of laws of Nature. Its resources 
have been tested by the experience of generations; to-day it lives and thrives 
and expands and wins the life-service of more workers than ever before. 
This, at least, is what I wanted to say, and I have said it with the greatest 
brevity I could command. But may I dare attempt to carry you further? If 
this seems fanciful, what will you say to the setting in which I would wish to 
place this point of view? And yet I feel bound to try to indicate something 
more, which may be of wider appeal. I said a word at starting as to the relations 
of science to those many to whom the message of our advanced civilisation is the 
necessity, above all things, of getting bread. Leaving this aside, I would make 
another reference. In our time old outlooks have very greatly changed; old 
hopes, disregarded perhaps because undoubted, have very largely lost their 
sanction, and given place to earnest questionings. Can anyone who watches 
doubt that the courage to live is in some danger of being swallowed up in the 
anxiety to acquire? May it not be, then, that it is good for us to realise, and to 
