June 25, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



923 



brains as well as of hands and eyes in the 

 discovery of truth. It does not fall to the 

 lot of any man to make no mistakes, and in 

 this respect Weismann was only human. 

 But it has fallen to the lot of few men to do 

 so much work of lasting- value and to have 

 so profound an influence on his day and 

 generation as was true of August Weis- 

 mann. The spirit of his life and work may 

 be summed up in the beautiful words with 

 which he closes his essay on "Life and 

 Death": 



After all it is the quest after perfect truth, not 

 its possession, that falls to our lot, that gladdens 

 us, fills up the measure of our life, nay! hallows it. 



Edwin G. Conklin 



Princeton Univeesity, 

 January, 1915 



TBE PLACE OF WISDOM IN TME STATE 

 AND IN EDUCATIOm 

 So soon as men get to discuss the importance of 

 a thing, they do infallibly set about arranging it, 

 facilitating it, forwarding it, and rest not till in 

 some approximate degree they have accomplished 

 it. — Cablyle. 



This, doubtless, is a true statement; the 

 difficulty is, however, to persuade men of 

 the importance of a thing. We come to 

 persuade you. As an association we are 

 now eighty-four years old: our main pur- 

 pose has been to obtain a more general at- 

 tention to the objects of science and a re- 

 moval of any disadvantages of a public 

 kind which impede its progress — ^let me also 

 add, its application to culture and to the 

 public service. 



By holding meetings, year after year, in 

 the principal towns of the British Isles, the 

 association has at least brought under notice 

 the fact that science is a reality, in so far 

 as this can be testified to by several hun- 

 dreds of its votaries meeting together each 



1 From an address to the Educational Science 

 Section of the British Association at Melbourne, 

 by Professor Henry E. Armstrong, F.E.S., The 

 Central Technical College, London. 



year to consider seriously and discuss the 

 progress of the various departments. On 

 the whole, dilettanti have had little share 

 in our debates. The association has already 

 carried the flag of knowledge outside our 

 islands, thrice to Canada and once to South 

 Africa; now, at last, we make this great 

 pilgrimage to your Australian shores; still 

 we are at home. What message do we bring 

 with us? 



In 1847, when this city was but an insig- 

 nificant town, it was visited by an English- 

 man who afterwards became eminent not 

 only in science, but also as a literary man — ■ 

 Thomas Henrj^ Huxley; he was then sur- 

 geon on board the surveying-ship Battle- 

 snake. In 1848 Huxley visited Sydney, 

 and there met the gracious lady, only re- 

 cently deceased, who became his wife. In 

 after years he achieved a great reputation 

 on account of his services to education. 



Lecturing in London in 1854, he defined 

 science as "trained and organized common 

 sense" — a definition often quoted since; 

 none could be more apposite, though it must 

 be remembered that ' ' common sense, ' ' after 

 all, is but an uncommon sense. 



A few years later, in a public lecture at 

 South Kensington, Huxley spoke to the 

 following effect: 



The whole of modern thought is steeped in sci- 

 ence; it has made its way into the works of oui 

 best poets and even the mere man of letters, who 

 affects to ignore and despise science, is uncon- 

 sciously impregnated with her spirit and indebted 

 for his best products to her methods. I believe 

 that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind 

 has yet seen is now slowly taking place by her 

 agency. She is teaching the world that the ulti- 

 mate court of appeal is observation and experi- 

 ment and not authority; she is teaching it the 

 value of evidence; she is creating a firm and liv- 

 ing faith in the existence of immutable moral and 

 physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the 

 highest possible aim of an intelligent being. 



But of all this your old stereotyped system of 

 education takes no note. Physical science, its 

 methods, its problems and its difficulties, will meet 



