540 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
If there is one object on which all men should coincide in 
acting together, it is in the earnest endeavour to further the in- 
tellectual advancement of our race. We should never lose 
sight of the fact, that what we are we owe to our fore- 
fathers, who have struggled from a stage of utter barbar- 
ism always onward towards a better state of civilisation. 
And in accepting this precious heritage, the sacred duty devolves 
upon us of continuing the erection of that moral and intellectual 
temple, of which our forefathers have laid sucha secure and broad 
foundation. We ought to feel proud in the thought that we have 
the power and capacity to add our share to that wonderful edifice. 
All national barriers have to be removed in our endeavour to 
develope and advance human knowledge and thought. Science 
in the widest acceptation of the term does not belong to any 
nationality ; it belongs to all mankind, and in it we find the real 
source of true progress, and of international peace and good-will. 
At the same time it is true that the greatest men who ever 
lived—men who have spread a lustre upon their fatherlands, only 
too proud to call them now their sons, when they tried to ad- 
vance knowledge by their eminent discoveries and teachings, 
were considered to be dangerous, and the virtucus indignation . 
of those Pharisees who did not wish the even tenor of their 
lives to be interfered with, brought them great hardships and 
privations, or even death. 
I may be allowed to make here a quotation from the Novum 
Organum of Lord Bacon, the immortal father of modern Philo- 
sophy and Science, as it is thoroughly applicable in all its bear- 
ings even tothe present time :—“ Again in habits and regula- 
tions of schools, universities, and the like assemblies, destined 
for the abode of learned men, and the improvement in learning, 
everything is found to be opposed to the progress of the 
Sciences. For the lectures and exercises are so ordered that any 
thing out of the common track can scarcely enter the thoughts 
and contemplatians of the mind. If, however, one or two have 
dared to use their liberty, they can only impose the labour on 
themselves, without deriving any advantage from the association 
of others ; and, if they will put up with this, they will find their 
industry and spirit of no slight disadvantage to them in making 
their fortune. For the pursuits of men in such situations are, as 
it were, chained down to the writings of particular authors, and 
if any dare to dissent from them he is immediately attacked as 
a turbulent and revolutionary spirit.”* 
The principal cause of a certain stagnation in the higher 
educational system, even at the present time, lies in the fact that 
it is of early medieval origin. In most cases it therefore never 
denies its origin and tendencies. It is influenced by old traditions, 
and by a spirit of conservatism, quite foreign to the progress it 
should make. For manyreasons Universities in the older countries 
are aristocratic institutions,and tendenciesof thesame kind in simi- 
*Book the Ist, XC, i 
