PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



19 



i'-reliminary but was not in liaM a scientilic investigation. Next came 

 Kepler, who by means of three laws summed up the facts in their 

 main outlines, and the description then took a more refined form, sub- 

 stituting half a page of printing for volumes of observations. Finally, 

 Newton succeeded in predicting the planetary movements on the 

 assumption of a gravitational attraction 'between all elements of matter. 

 According to Kirchhoff, the chief merit of this discovery would lie 

 in its condensing Kepler's three laws into one hypothesis. This point 

 of view is not necessarily opposed to that of Poincare, because it is 

 exactly the simplicity of Newton's explanation that appeals most 

 strongly to our esthetic sense, but there is an important difference 

 in the manner of expression, for however beautiful an idea may be, it 

 loses its effect by being placed before us in an unattractive form. 

 This criticism also apphes to Mach, according to whom the object of 

 science is to economize thought, just as it is the object of a machine 

 to economize effort. Logically, this definition is justified, and it may 

 be the best that can be given, if we prefer using a technical expression 

 to confessing an emotional feeling. But why should we do so? Is it 

 not better to recognize that human intelligence is affected fcy sentiment 

 as much as by reason, and is it not a mistake for scientific men to 

 dissociate themselves from the rest of humanity, Tay placing their 

 motives on a different, and, at the best, only superficially higher, 

 level? When an adventurous spirit, for instance, desires to organize 

 an expedition to unknown regions of the world, we tiy to induce 

 our governments to provide the necessary funds by persuading them, 

 and incidentally ourselves, that we do so because important scientific 

 results may be expected from the expedition. This may actually 

 be the case, but we are mainly affected by the same motives as 

 the rest of the community : if the tinith be told, we are as curious 

 as others to know what every corner of the earth looks like, and we 

 join them in wishing to encourage an enterprise requiring perseverance 

 and involving danger. 



I fully I'ealise that the wish to justify one's own work in the eyes 

 of the world will always lead to fresh attempts to find a formula 

 expressing the objects which we desire to attain. Enough, however, 

 has been said to show that the definition must take account of senti- 

 ment, without insisting too much upon it ; nor can we hope, in view of 

 the variety of intellectual and emotional pleasures wliich combine to 

 create the charm of science, to include all points of view, but if I were 

 foi'ced to make a choice I should say that the object of science is to 

 predict the future. The wish to know what lies before us is one of the 

 oldest and most enduring desires of human nature ; often, no doubt, it has 

 degenerated and given rise to perverted and ignoble longings, but its 



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