124 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



fundamental scientific physical principles as basis but is founded simply 

 upon deductions made from a close study of warfare from all times. 

 Wars are analysed, tactics and strategy studied with the view to learning 

 from the history of centuries of war useful lessons to guide the soldiers of 

 to-day and to safeguard them against repetition of the mistakes which 

 have caused the disasters of the past. 



The science of invention is a curious blend of the exact sciences, like 

 mathematics, physics and chemistry, with a historical science. It is in 

 many respects similar to the science of war, the war being against the 

 complexity of nature, man's ignorance of that complexity and the 

 inefficiency and insufficiency of the human intellect itself. Whether 

 Nature be regarded as a cantankerous old dame ever ready to take ad- 

 vantage of a false step, neglecting no opportunity to obstruct, and resenting 

 every attempt to reduce her movements to law and order, or whether she 

 be regarded as a kindly old lady in the middle of a sun-lit lawn, calling 

 softly ' Come and find me ' to a crowd of eager, blindfold children, the 

 fact remains that she and man are age-old opponents in a contest from 

 which there can be no discharge to the end of time. Yet if we compare 

 this contest with the wars of man with his fellow-man, what a difference 

 we find. Napoleon said he learned the art of war from a study of the lives 

 of the Great Captains, but in the greater war with nature if we consult 

 the books that have been written round the lives of its Great Captains 

 we find only human documents in which the searcher after knowledge, to 

 help him to carry the fight a little further, finds little help beyond an 

 example of high courage. The technical difficulties are seldom recorded 

 and the new searcher has generally to start afresh and reconnoitre his way 

 across the old battle-ground of centuries. The fault sometimes lies with 

 the chronicler but too often with the lack of records which the Captain 

 might have left but failed to leave. In fact here we have a startling 

 lesson from the science of war, for is it not drummed into every budding 

 soldier till it becomes second nature when he attains command, that one 

 of his first duties in the field which must never be neglected is to maintain 

 communication and pass on all information that may come his way, 

 whether it be useful to him or not. The lesson has two sides. The soldier 

 knows that he may become a casualty at any moment and the information 

 which he gleans may be of vital importance to enable someone else to 

 carry on in his stead, also that information which may appear unimportant 

 to him may prove to be the key to the movements of the enemy elsewhere 

 of which he is in entire ignorance. 



Any invention starts with a scheme which, on paper, promises to be 

 successful if the fundamental assumptions or information on which the 

 scheme is based are correct. Just as a general draws up his scheme of 

 attack based upon certain assumptions or information regarding the 

 enemy's disposition, numbers and probable future movements, so the 

 inventor lays his plans to curb and control nature by a scheme based upon 

 assumptions as to her behaviour. When the general finds that the enemy 

 is stronger than he thought, or that he has shifted his ground and is turning 

 his flank, or generally that the enemy is not playing the game which he 

 had been expected to play and which had been provided for, he has to 

 modify his scheme and proceed on new lines, so also the inventor has 



