ADDRESS. 15 
respect to other things there may be times of darkness and times of light, 
there may be risings, decadences, and revivals. In science there is only 
progress. The path may not be always a straight line, there may be 
swerving to this side and to that, ideas may seem to return again and 
again to the same point of the intellectual compass ; but it will always be 
found that they have reached a higher level—they have moved, not in a 
circle, but in a spiral. Moreover science is not fashioned as is a house, 
by putting brick to brick, that which is once put remaining as it was put 
to the end. The growth of science is that of a living being. As in the 
embryo phase follows phase, and each member of the body puts on in 
succession different appearances, though all the while the same member, 
So a scientific conception of one age seems to differ from that of a follow- 
ing age, though it is the same one in the process of being made ; and as 
the dim outlines of the early embryo, as the being grows, become more 
distinct and sharp, like a picture on a screen brought more and more into 
focus, so the dim gropings and searchings of the men of science of old are 
by repeated approximations wrought into the clear and exact conclusions 
of later times. 
The story of natural knowledge, of science, in the nineteenth century, 
as, indeed, in preceding centuries, is, I repeat, a story of continued progress. 
There is in it not so much as a hint of falling back, not even of standing 
still. What is gained by scientific inquiry is gained for ever ; it may be 
added to, it may seem to be covered up, but it can never be taken away. 
Confident that the progress will go on, we cannot help peering into the 
years to come and straining our eyes to foresee what science will become 
and what it will do as they roll on. While we do so, the thought must 
come to us, Will all the increasing knowledge of Nature avail only to 
change the ways of man—will it have no effect on man himself ? 
The material good which mankind has gained and is gaining through 
the advance of science is so imposing as to be obvious to everyone, and 
the praises of this aspect of science are to be found in the mouths of all. 
Beyond all doubt science has greatly lessened and has markedly narrowed 
hardship and suffering ; beyond all doubt science has largely increased 
and has widely diffused ease and comfort. The appliances of science have, 
as it were, covered with a soft cushion the rough places of life, and that 
not for the rich only, but also for the poor. So abundant and so promi- 
nent are the material benefits of science that in the eyes of many these 
seem to be the only benefits which she brings. She is often spoken of as 
if she were useful and nothing more, as if her work were only to administer 
to the material wants of man, 
Is this so ? 
We may begin to doubt it when we reflect that the triumphs of science 
which bring these material advantages are in their very nature intellec- 
tual triumphs. The increasing benefits brought by science are the results 
