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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 960 



which it took in the great days when Isaac 

 Newton was one of its members; and now 

 there has sprung up all over Europe a 

 host of other bodies pursuing science and 

 following it into those infinite ramifications 

 which modern science has discovered. 

 Everywhere there you are welcome. One 

 of the most delightful things of science is 

 that it knows no divisions or allegiance to 

 nationality. It is a republic in which there 

 is no passport to greatness, except service 

 and genius, and it is a republic of which 

 every one is a citizen, and where every one 

 has equal rights in every part of the world. 



That has always been our tradition in 

 England and in our Royal Society; and I 

 know it is your tradition here, and I know 

 what hearty welcomes you have always 

 given to our men of science when they have 

 come over here, and how refreshed and 

 invigorated in spirit they have been when 

 they have gone back to their own country. 



Gentlemen, I can wish nothing better for 

 any of us than that these comings and 

 goings will be frequent, and I can assure 

 you that it will always be a pleasure to the 

 scientific men of England and Scotland to 

 welcome you to their societies and to all 

 their gatherings and universities. I hope 

 that, more and more, these meetings will 

 take place, and I can assure you that all 

 you have achieved and all that you are 

 achieving in so many ways on so many 

 different lines for the advancement of 

 knowledge, for the extension of human 

 power that comes through knowledge, is 

 followed with gratitude and admiration by 

 the scientific men of Great Britain. 



SPEECH OP DR. S. WEIK MITCHELL 



Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, my 

 brothers of the Academy: I am, I presume, 

 the victim of the after-dinner hour, as 

 usual, and am well aware of the treachery 

 of the tongue, and much prefer the loyalty 



of the pen. I have, therefore, deliberately 

 put on paper that which I want to say to 

 you to-night, feeling that it will be much 

 more probable that I shall interest you than 

 if I trusted to my unassisted words. 



I am, I presume, indebted to the liberal 

 forbearance of time for the honor of being 

 asked to speak to you this evening. It 

 does not find me in the careless mood of 

 after-dinner gaiety, nor is it possible to 

 escape altogether from personal remem- 

 brances, which elsewhere than at this 

 friendly board might entitle me to be rele- 

 gated to what Disraeli called the "fatal 

 time of anecdotage. ' ' 



My diploma is dated August 25, 1865, 

 three years after our foundation. It is 

 signed by Dallas, Bache, Wolcott Gibbs and 

 Louis Agassiz. Since then, one hundred 

 and thirty-six of our fellowship have come 

 and died, with an average duration of 

 academic life of more than eighteen and 

 a half years — ^very many with far less. 

 This makes clear that in those earlier years 

 our additions were of men older than those 

 we elect now. 



At present the liberal endowment of re- 

 search opens the way to distinction for 

 younger men, unembarrassed by the time- 

 killing need to preach science as well as to 

 practise it. 



Between the mere words of our record — 

 elected — deceased — you, who are familiar 

 with our history, may read much that is 

 written clear on the roll of scientific 

 achievement. 



Here are they to whom, from the depths 

 of space, were whispered in the night 

 watches its long hidden secrets. There, 

 too, are those who, in the silence of the 

 laboratory, rejoiced in the fertile marriage 

 of the elements, or they who, like confessors, 

 heard from dead bones or rock or flower 



