HBO REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 191G. 



the Workers' Educational Association, and the list might be extended, reduced, 

 or modified at will. Each of these bodies will, of cooirse, if our scheme matures, 

 I'etain its own officere and manage its own affairs, but matters common to them 

 all will be decided by the Federation as a whole, or by its Executive Committee. 



A somewhat formidable list of questions has been sent out to the members 

 of the British Association, inviting their opinion as to the reason for the 

 comparative unpopularity, in recent years, of scientific lectures. May I respect- 

 fully suggest that such a federation as we contemplate would probably do 

 much to solve the problem ? In my own town, for example, we have at least 

 three institutions, tne Warrington Society, the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, and the Philomathic Society, whose activities, upon one side, at any 

 rate, are practical identical. But not one of them is able to obtain, except on 

 rare occasions, a really satisfactory audience. Their dates sometimes conflict ; 

 if, as often happens, the same people are members of two or more of the 

 societies, they cannot, in these crowded days, find time for all the lectures. 

 Suppose that, under such a scheme as I outline, they held their lectures on 

 alternate dates, gave interchangeable privileges of membership, organised joint 

 lectures, and, from time to time, by pooling their resources, obtained the services 

 of some prominent outsider, their united efforts would achieve success. Then 

 possibly lecturing might cease to be a lost art, or a rambling and discursive 

 talk round lantern slides or moving pictures, as it very often is to-day. 



That brings me to another point we contemplated in our local scheme. The 

 different societies at present meet in different places — ranging from 'pubs.' 

 to clubs, and from masonic halls to church parlours. These are not always 

 available, are often inconvenient, and are seldom able to offer the facilities 

 which such societies require. And the rooms are either too small for the 

 occasional, or too big for the accustomed, audiences. A federation might 

 secure, or even build, in every town, appropriate premises containing a hali 

 for public lectures, fitted up with a screen and lantern and the other requisite 

 appliances, a reading room and library, with smaller rooms for less important 

 meetings and other necessary purposes. This is quite beyond the power oif 

 separate societies <as ai rule. It might be practicable if they concentrated 

 their resources. They would find a common home, and common interests, and 

 their zeal would soon become contagious and each encourage and inspire 

 the rest. Possibly club privileges might be added, as in the case of the 

 Old Academy. The suburbs end adjacent villages might be linked up more 

 or less closely with these urban federations, or form smaller federations of 

 their own. On these lines, we might light, in every part of England, a series 

 of intellectual candles which all the world's indifference would not readily 

 put out. 



Of course, my project would not end with towns, or suburbs, or even 

 with adjoining places. District federations, as I have already indicated, would 

 be a natural corollary, and each of these, in turn, would stimulate and co- 

 ordinate the intellectual life of its own area. I have already given illus- 

 trations, and I need not labour the matter. Just as the adjacent towns were 

 linked up with tlie district federations, so these, in turn, would be linked 

 up with the central organisation, national, imperial, or cosmopolitan, as the 

 case might be. Every branch of intellectual activity might have its corre- 

 sponding gi-oups of small societies united in a series of federations—say, a 

 federation of field clubs, or astronomical, or geological, or geographical, or 

 botanical, or zoological, or antiquarian, or literary, or musical societies. The 

 principle is sufficiently elastic to embrace them all. Whenever there is a 

 common purpose there ought to be united effort to secure it. Wherever there 

 is room for local independence and initiative they ought to be maintained. 

 Suppose, for the sake of argument, that all the scientific societies in the Kingdom 

 sent representatives to the British Association! Suppose that all the _ societies 

 interested in letters sent representatives to the Royal Society of Literature, 

 or some new central body ! One of the latest is an International Institute of 

 British Poetry, by the way. Suppose the Royal Society of Arts became the 

 foster-mother of a federation of societies interested in painting, in sculpture, 

 in music, and the rest ! Individual membership, as in the case of some of the 

 existing organisations — the British Association itself, for example— might be 

 supplemented by representative authority. And, if existing institutions did 



