Septembek 8, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



291 



they will repay the siim which they have 

 received as a scholarship, bursary, or fel- 

 lowship. It would then be possible for an 

 insurance company to advance a sum rep- 

 resenting the capital value, viz., 7,464,931L, 

 of the scholarships, reserving, say, twenty 

 per cent, for non-payment, the result of 

 mishap or death. In this way a sum of 

 over six million pounds, of which the in- 

 terest is now expended on scholarships, 

 would be available for university purposes. 

 This is about one-fourth of the sum of 

 twenty-four millions stated by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer at the Southport meeting as neces- 

 sary to place our university education on a 

 satisfactory basis. A large part of the in- 

 come of this sum should be spent in increas- 

 ing the emoluments of the chairs ; for, un- 

 less the income of a professor is made in 

 some degree commensurate with the earn- 

 ings of a professional man who has suc- 

 ceeded in his profession, it is idle to sup- 

 pose that the best brains will be attracted 

 to the teaching profession. And it follows 

 that unless the teachers occupy the first 

 rank, the pupils will not be stimulated as 

 they ought to be. 



Again, having made the profession of a 

 teacher so lucrative as to tempt the best 

 intellects in the country to enter it, it is 

 clear that such men are alone capable of 

 testing their pupils. The modern system 

 of "external examinations," known only 

 in this country, and answerable for much 

 of its lethargy, would disappear; schools 

 of thought would arise in all subjects, and 

 the intellectual as well as the industrial 

 prosperity of our nation would be assured. 

 As things are, can we wonder that as a 

 nation we are not scientific ? Let me recom- 

 mend those of my hearers who are inter- 

 ested in the matter to read a recent report 

 on Technical Education by the Science 

 Guild. 



I venture to think that, in spite of the 



remarkable progress of science and of its 

 applications, there never was a time when 

 missionary effort was more needed. Al- 

 though most people have some knowledge 

 of the results of scientific inquiry, few, 

 very few, have entered into its spirit. We 

 all live in hope that the world will grow 

 better as the years roll on. Are we taking 

 steps to secure the improvement of the 

 race? I plead for recognition of the fact, 

 that progress in science does not only con- 

 sist in accumulating information which 

 may be put to practical use, but in devel- 

 oping a spirit of prevision, in taking 

 thought for the morrow; in attempting to 

 forecast the future, not by vague surmise, 

 but by orderly marshalling of facts, and by 

 deducing from them their logical outcome ; 

 and chiefly in endeavoring to control con- 

 ditions which may be utilized for the last- 

 ing good of our people. We must cultivate 

 a belief in the "application of trained in- 

 telligence to all forms of national activity. 



The council of the association has had 

 under consideration the formation of a 

 section of agriculture. For some years 

 this important branch of applied science, 

 borrowing as it does from botany, from 

 physics, from chemistry, and from econ- 

 nomics, has in turn enjoyed the hospitality 

 of each of these sections, itself having been 

 made a subsection of one of these more 

 definite sciences. It is proposed this year 

 to form an agricultural section. Here, 

 there is need of missionary effort; for our 

 visits to our colonies have convinced many 

 of us that much more is being done for the 

 farmer in the newer parts of the British 

 Empire than at home. Agriculture is, in- 

 deed, applied botany, chemistry, entomol- 

 ogy, and economics ; and has as much right 

 to independent treatment as has engineer- 

 ing, which may be strictly regarded as ap- 

 plied physics. 



The question has often been debated 

 whether the present method of conducting 



