16 president's address. 



of trying to justify one's reputation in the eyes of the world; but it is 

 worth making the effort. The only example that I know of such an 

 autobiographical sketch is that of Darwin, which is contained in his 

 ' Life and Letters,' published by his son. Sir Francis Darwin. 



The ambition of a child to be better, cleverer, or more beautiful 

 than its fellows is in the main, I thmk, a wish to please and to be 

 praised. As the child grows up, the ambition becomes more definite. 

 It is not a sordid ambition for ultimate wealth or power, nor is it an 

 altruistic ambition to do good for the sake of doing good. Occasionally 

 it takes the form confessed to by Darwin, when he says : ' As a child 

 I was much given to inventing deliberate falsehoods, and this was 

 always done for the sake of causing excitement. ' This desire to be 

 conspicuous was, in Darwin's case, consistent with extreme modesty, 

 amounting almost to a want of confidence in himself, as appears in 

 this passage : ' I remember one of my sporting friends. Turner, who 

 saw me at work with my beetles, saying that I should some day be a 

 Fellow of the Eoyal Society, and this notion seemed to me to be pre- 

 posterous.' 



We next come to the stage where a child is attracted by one subject 

 more than another, and, if his choice be free, will select it for his life's 

 career. What guides him in this choice? If it be said that a boy 

 gravitates towards that subject which he finds easiest, we are led to the 

 further question why does he find it easiest? It is on this point that 

 more information is required, but I am inclined to answer in accordance 

 with Poincare's views that it is because its particular beauty appeals 

 most strongly to his emotional senses. In questions of this kind every- 

 one must form his own conclusions according to his personal recollec- 

 tions, and these convince me that the emotional factor appears already 

 at an early age. It is the strong attraction towards particular forms 

 of reasoning, more perhaps even than the facility with which reasoning 

 comes, that carries us over the initial difficulties and the drudgery that 

 must accompany every serious study. 



I have already alluded to the different tendencies of individuals 

 either to prefer solitary reflexion or to seek companionship. Almost 

 in every profession we find men of both types. Darwin's autobiography 

 furnishes a good example of the man who prefers to learn through 

 quiet reading rather than through lectures, but to many men of science 

 the spoken word is inspuing and contact with congenial minds almost a 

 necessity. 



From our present point of view the most interesting passages in 

 Darwin's autobiography are those indicating the aesthetic feeling which, 

 like Poincare, he connects with scientific research. Referring to his 

 early studies we find this passage : ' I was taught by a private tutor 



