Atkinson — On the Function of an Academy. 



47 



submitted to discussion at the hands of competent and independent 

 critics. The Academy was to be a Parliament; its papers were to 

 cany the weight of the approval of the Academy, for otherwise the 

 papers might just as well have appeared anywhere else. And as dis- 

 cussion tends to furnish a guarantee of value, so it tends to arouse 

 interest in the body of the members ; and perhaps this particular 

 function of the Academy has not always been fully acknowledged and 

 exercised. I have felt at times during my term of office that I should 

 have been glad to hear a little more discussion ; not certainly for the 

 pleasure of listening to pungent criticisms, but for the purpose of enab- 

 ling me to comprehend'more fully the bearing and relations of the paper 

 read. It is one of the clauses of the declaration made by members on 

 entering the Academy " that we will be present at the meeting of said 

 Academy as often as we conveniently can " ; and probably there is 

 ground for holding that if Jthere were more discussion there would be felt 

 a greater interest in the meetings, and an impetus and motive furnished 

 for attendance in these busy times. 



Save in papers on pure mathematics, where there can be very 

 little discussion, it may be in general maintained that when a paper 

 is read, it can be discussed : there is logic involved, inferences are 

 made ; there is a method adopted; there are references to other 

 branches of knowledge in which other authorities may have a word to 

 say ; and thus there are many openings for relevant questions and 

 suggestions. 



In discussion among a large number of persons skilled in various 

 branches of knowledge there may be expected from time to time to 

 emerge from the clash of intellects, new modes of looking at compli- 

 cated problems of general interest : attack and defence are often 

 productive of results tending to progress. At the very least they may 

 be held to furnish opportunities of developing the subject even to the 

 writer of the paper, by suggesting points of view, by calling attention 

 to possible difficulties of statement or interpretation which may have 

 escaped the notice of the writer. But I need not labour the point, as the 

 advantages of discussion are probably admitted, just as, on the other 

 hand, its dangers are appreciated. The general result to be obtained by 

 fuller discussion would be not only the arousing of a wider interest, 

 but also the formation of appropriate links between the different 

 branches of the Academy's work. One might be inclined almost to 

 formulate as a maxim that every paper should involve some appeal to 

 the general interest of human beings. In our modern life, in Science, 

 in which such progress has been made that specialization has become 



