The Presidents' Addresses. . 35 



side of the subject, the President shows how the progress of 

 the arts, even before science came to aid them, was traceable 

 to three conditions : (1) The substitution of natural forces 

 for brute animal power. (2) The economy of time. (3) 

 Methods of utilizing waste products, or of endowing them 

 with properties which render them of increased value to 

 industry. " All these results are often combined when a 

 single end is obtained — at all events, economy of time and 

 production invariably follows when natural forces are sub- 

 stituted for brute animal force." And Sir Lyon Playfair 

 points out that, during the last twenty years, the steam 

 power of the world has risen from 11J million to 29 million 

 horse-power, or 152 per cent. 



The concluding section of the Address is devoted to 

 "Abstract Science, the Condition for Progress." Sir Lyon 

 Playfair guards himself against the misconception that he is 

 opposed to literary training. " My contention is that science 

 should not be practically shut out from the view of a youth 

 while his education is in progress, for the public weal 

 requires that a large number of scientific men should belong 

 to a community. . . . No amount of learning without 

 science suffices in the present state of the world to put us 

 in a position which will enable England to keep ahead or 

 even on a level with foreign nations as regards knowledge 

 and its applications to the utilities of life." In illustration 

 of this fact, the advantages that the world gained from the 

 learning of Erasmus are compared with those that accrued 

 from the discoveries of Newton. The impetus given by the 

 latter was not confined to the world of science. " Newton's 

 discovery cast men's minds into an entirely new mould, and 

 levelled many barriers to human progress. This intellectual 

 result was vastly more important than the practical advan- 

 tages of the discovery, . . . Truth was now able to dis- 

 card authority, and marched forward without hindrance. 

 Before this point was reached, Bruno had been burned, 

 Galileo had abjured, and both Copernicus and Descartes had 

 kept back their writings for fear of offending the Church." 

 Turning to the great intellectual revolution of our own 

 day, Sir Lyon Playfair adds that, " the recent acceptance 



