406 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
Closing Address. By The Hon. Lord M £ Laren. 
(Read July 21, 1890.) 
As the Chairman for this evening, I have been asked by the 
Council to lay before you a brief summary of the events of the 
session, which will conclude the public business of the session. 
In this retrospective view the most interesting point is the 
number and variety of the papers which have been read. Of these 
there were in all 74 papers, of which 19 were in the department of 
Natural Philosophy, 16 in Mathematics, 11 in Chemistry, 1 in 
Geology, 9 in Zoology, 1 in Botany, 6 in Physiology, 2 in Anatomy, 
5 in Meteorology, 2 in Physical Geography, and 2 in Philology. 
These contributions, I may say, in the opinion of competent judges, 
are calculated to maintain the reputation of our publications for 
originality and accuracy. In the present session, moreover, we 
have had two important contributions in the department of philology 
and literature, for which we are indebted to Professor Blackie. In 
these papers the author emphasised the remarkable fact that the 
Greek language, as now spoken and written, is substantially the 
same language as the Greek of Lucian and Plutarch, having under- 
gone no material change during the elapse of 2000 years. A late 
learned and enthusiastic French Hellenist, Monsieur d’Eichthal, 
held the opinion that Greek (I will not call it Modern Greek, which 
I take to be a misnomer) will one day take the place of Latin as 
the medium of correspondence between cultivated men of all 
countries. Without going quite so far, we may at least point to the 
vitality of the ancient Greek tongue and its power of adaptation to 
modern requirements as an answer to the arguments of those who 
seek to discourage the study of classical literature at our universities, 
on the ground of the supposed discordance between the ancient and 
the modern modes of thought and expression. 
A more true explanation of the comparative decline of pure 
scholarship and the preference accorded to the more recondite and 
perhaps more laborious researches which are necessary for the 
development of scientific truth, may be found in this observation of 
M. Renan : — “ The intense satisfaction attending scientific work 
arises from the assurance which the scientist feels that he labours 
