GUPPY — SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN TRINIDAD. 
pends upon the accuracy with which he observes, classifies 
and infers the properties of objects, their order of co- 
existence and succession. He has to find his friends and 
his foes amid the multitude of forces which surround him* 
Each has to be carefully watched and tested ; the dearest 
friend often proving the direst foe under trifling changes of 
conditions. The spontaneous activity of man’s intellect urges 
him to the construction of schemes by which the various 
phenomena may be connected ; he links the known and 
accessible to the unknown and inaccessible. Thus Philo- 
sophy emerged from Knowledge. As Civilization advanced. 
Knowledge became more extensive and precise, Philosophy 
took a wider range. Arts arose, which preserved and trans- 
mitted the common fund of knowledge. Those great na- 
tions which duly cherished this heirloom and increased its 
store, magnified their existence and became the glory of 
our race. Those nations which neglected it perished, or 
continued barbarous ; that is, comparatively helpless and 
miserable.* 
In placing before you some remarks on the character and 
aims of Science I feel that I cannot do better than again to 
quote the words of the writer from whom I have drawn the 
preceding sentences. Science, he says, acquires her dignity 
and power from her disinterestedness. Although her re- 
searches, even in the remotest regions, are always eventu- 
ally beneficent among our daily uses, although the most 
abstract speculations ultimately contribute to the satisfac- 
tion of our vulgar needs, it is not with this view that re- 
searches are undertaken. It is well, indeed, that it should 
be so, for if Science did not possess an interest of its own, 
* George Henry Lewes ; Aristotle, a Chapter from the History of 
Science, pp, 24, 25. 
