12 president's address. 



these are real phenomena caused by masses of glowing vapours ejected 

 from the sun; and when a learned friend tells me that all this is an 

 optical illusion due to anomalous refraction, I object on the ground that 

 the explanation violates my common-sense. He replies by giving me 

 the reasons which have led liim to his conclusions, and, though I still 

 believe that I am right, I have to meet him with a more substantial 

 reply than an appeal to my own convictions. Against a solid argument 

 common-sense has no power and must remain a useful but fallible 

 guide which both leads and misleads all classes of the community 

 ahke.® 



The difficulties of assigning special intellectual quahties to groups 

 of men within one country are increased when we compare different 

 nations with each other. Some of the so-called national, or more pro- 

 perly speaking racial, characteristics are undoubtedly regulated by the 

 laws of heredity, but there are many others which seem to depend 

 entirely on education and training; and, if I select one as an example, 

 it is because it figures so largely in public discussions at the present 

 moment. I refer to that expedient for combining individual efforts 

 which goes by the name of organization. An efficient organization 

 requires a head that directs and a body that obeys ; it works mainly 

 through discipline, which is its most essential attribute. Every in- 

 stitution, every factory, every business establishment is a complicated 

 organism, and no country ever came to prominence in any walk of life 

 unless it possessed the ability to provide for the efficient working of such 

 organisms. To say that a nation which has acquired and maintained an 

 Empire, and which conducts a large trade in every part of the world, is 

 deficient in organizing power is therefore an absurdity. Much of the 

 current self-depreciation in this I'espect is due to confusing a true 

 organization with that modification of it which to a great extent 

 casts aside discipline and substitutes co-operation. Though much may 

 be accomplished by co-operation, it is full of danger in an emergency, 

 for it can only work if it be loyally adhered to ; otherwise it resembles 

 a six-cylinder motor in which every sparking-plug is allowed to fix its 

 own time of firing. Things go well so long as the plugs agree; but 

 there is nearly always one among them that persists in taking an 

 independent course and, when the machine stops, complains that the 

 driver is inefficient. The cry for organization, justifiable as it no doubt 

 often is, resolves itself, therefore, into a cry for increased discipline, 

 by which I do not mean the discipline enforced at the point of the 

 bayonet, but that accepted by the individual who voluntarily subor- 



^ Since writing the above, I find on reading Professor J. A. Thomson's ' Intro- 

 duction to Science' a similar criticism of iHuxley's dictum. Frof. Thomson'? 

 general conclusions are not, however, in agreement with those here advocated. 



