ADDRESS. 17 
of steadfast endurance. Almost every inquiry, certainly every prolonged 
inquiry, sooner or later goes wrong. The path, at first so straight and 
clear, grows crooked and gets blocked ; the hope and enthusiasm, or even 
the jaunty ease, with which the inquirer set out leave him and he falls 
into a slough of despond. That is the critical moment calling for courage. 
Struggling through the slough he will find on the other side the wicket- 
gate opening up the real path ; losing heart he will turn back and add 
one more stone to the great cairn of the unaccomplished. 
But, I hear someone say, these qualities are not the peculiar attributes 
of the man of science, they may be recognised as belonging to almost every- 
one who has commanded or deserved success, whatever may have been his 
walk of life. Thatisso. That is exactly what I would desire to insist, 
that the men of science have no peculiar virtues, no special powers. They 
are ordinary men, their characters are common, even commonplace. 
Science, as Huxley said, is organised common sense, and men of science 
are common men, drilled in the ways of common sense. 
For their life has this feature. Though in themselves they are no 
stronger, no better than other men, they possess a strength which, as I 
just now urged, is not their own but is that of the science whose servants 
they are. Even in his apprenticeship, the scientific inquirer, while learn- 
ing what has been done before his time, if he learns it aright, so learns it 
that what is known may serve him not only as a vantage ground whence 
to push off into the unknown, but also as a compass to guide him in his 
course. And when fitted for his work he enters on inquiry itself, what a 
zealous anxious guide, what a strict and, because strict, helpful school- 
mistress does Nature make herself tohim ! Under her care every inquiry, 
whether it bring the inquirer to a happy issue or seem to end in nought, 
trains him for the next effort. She so orders her ways that each act 
of obedience to her makes the next act easier for him, and step by step 
she leads him on towards that perfect obedience which is complete mastery. 
Indeed, when we reflect on the potency of the discipline of scientific 
inquiry we cease to wonder at the progress of scientific knowledge. The 
results actually gained seem to fall so far short of what under such guid- 
ance might have been expected to have been gathered in that we are fain 
to conclude that science has called to follow her, for the most part, the 
poor in intellect and the wayward in spirit. Had she called to her service 
the many acute minds who have wasted their strength struggling in vain 
to solve hopeless problems, or who have turned their energies to things 
other than the increase of knowledge ; had she called to her service the 
many just men who have walked straight without the need of a rod 
to guide them, how much greater than it has been would have been 
the progress of science, and how many false teachings would the world 
have been.spared! 'To men of science themselves, when they consider 
their favoured lot, the achievements of the past should serve not as a 
boast, but as a reproach. 
1899, 
