KOVEMBER 14, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



7M1 



having to 'scrap' any old machinery or old 

 ideas, with the latest machinery and the 

 latest ideas. For them also the time will 

 come when their machines will be getting 

 out-of-date and the cost of 'scrapping' will 

 loom large in their eyes. In the mean- 

 time they have taught us lessons, and this 

 greatest of all lessons— that unless we look 

 ahead with much judgment, unless we take 

 reasonable precautions, unless we pay some 

 regard to the fact that the cleverest people 

 in several nations are hungry for our trade 

 and jealous of our supremacy, we may 

 for a time lose a little of that supremacy. 

 In the last twenty-three years I have writ- 

 ten a good deal about the harm done to 

 England by the general dislike that there 

 is among all classes for any kind of educa- 

 tion. I do not say that this dislike is 

 greater than it used to be in England; I 

 complain that it is about as great. But 

 I have never spoken of the decadence of 

 England. It is only that we have been 

 too confident that those manufactures and 

 that commerce and that skill in engineer- 

 ing, for which Napoleon sneered at us, 

 would remain with us forever. Many 

 writers have long been pointing out the 

 consequences ^ of neglecting education; 

 prophesying those very losses of trade, 

 that very failure of engineers to keep their 

 houses in order, which now alarms all news- 

 paper writers. Panics are ridiculous, but 

 there is nothing ridiculous in showing that 

 we can take a hint. We have had a very 

 strong hint given us that we cannot forever 

 go on with absolutely no education in the 

 scientific principles which underlie all en- 

 gineering. There is another important 

 thing to remember. Should foreigners get 

 the notion that we are decaying, we shall 

 no lonser have our industries kept up by 

 an influx of clever Uitlanders, and we are 

 much too much in the habit of forgetting 

 what we owe to foreigners, Fleming and 

 German, Hollander, Huguenot and He- 



brew, for the development of our natural 

 resources. Think of how much we some- 

 times owe to one foreigner like the late 

 Sir William Siemens. 



But I am going too far; there is after 

 all not so very much of the foolishness of 

 Ishbosheth among us, and I cannot help 

 but feel hopeful as I think lovingly of 

 what British engineers have done in the 

 past. We who meet here have lived 

 through the pioneering time of mechanical 

 and electrical and various other kinds of 

 engineering. Our days and nights have 

 been delightful because we have had the 

 feeling that we also were helping in the 

 creation of a quite new thing never before 

 known. It may be that our successors will 

 have a better time, will see a more rapid 

 development of some other applications of 

 science. Who knows? In every labora- 

 tory of the world men are discovering more 

 and more of nature's secrets. The labora- 

 tory experiment of to-day gives rise to the 

 engineering achievement of to-morrow. 

 But I do say that, however great may be 

 the growth of engineering, there can never 

 be a time in the future history of the 

 world, as there has never before been a 

 time, when men will have more satisfaction 

 in the growth of their profession than en- 

 gineers have had during the reign of Queen 

 Victoria. 



And now I want to call your attention 

 to a new phenomenon. Over and over 

 again has attention been called to the fact 

 that the engineer has created what is called 

 'modern civilization,' has given luxuries of 

 all kinds to the poorest people, has pro- 

 vided engines to do all the slave labor of 

 the world, has given leisure and freedom 

 from drudgery, and chances of refinement 

 and high thought and high emotion to 

 thousands instead of units. But it is do- 

 ing things more striking still. Probably 

 the mo.st important of all things is that the 

 yoke of super.stitions of all kinds on the 



