20 
DAVIS : PRO. THILLiPS. 
investigator, an org-auizer of the means for encouragement and 
assistance of his fellow-workers, or more important than either, as 
an inculcator of a true knowledge and love of scientific method in 
the youthful minds of those entrusted to his care at the college or 
elsewhere, — he was always earnest and sincere. 
No one would endorse more heartily than Phillips the noble 
words of a recent speaker, with which I will conclude this sketch, 
with the substitution of one word ; they are as follows : — " The 
benefit to the student of science flows from the improvement of 
his own mind ; from the exercise and expansion of his power to 
perceive and to reflect ; from the formation of habits of attention 
and application ; from a bias given to character in favour of culti- 
vating intelligence for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the 
direct advantages it brings. The advantages lie in the far future, 
and do not administer to the feverish excitement which are of 
necessity in the various degrees incidental to the pursuits of the 
modern commercial world. The habits of mind formed by 
Scientific pursuits are founded on sobriety and tranquility ; 
they help to settle the spirits of a man, fixing them upon the 
centre of gravity ; the}^ tend to self-command, self-government, 
and that genuine self-respect which has nothing in it of self-wor- 
ship. It is one thing to plough and sow with the expectation of 
the harvest in due season when the year shall have come round ; 
it is another to ransack the ground in a gold-field with the heated 
hope and craving for vast returns to-morrow or to-day. All 
honour then to Science, because, while it prepares young men in 
the most useful manner for the practical purposes of life, it em- 
bodies a protest against the excessive dominion of craving appe- 
tites, and supplies a powerful agency for neutralizing the specific 
dangers of this age." 
