THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
0 
occupy such a strong place in the curriculum of our higher 
Schools. This is felt by many who would not be prepared to go 
so far as Herbert Spencer, who would make Science the " be all " 
and the " end all " of Education. That the study of Classics is 
rather extending than declining is, I think, very evident ; while 
that of Science, which had begun to supplant them, has 
positively retrograded. Thus, to take only one example, we read 
in the Journal of Education for September, 1884, that in the 
primary schools of this country grammar still holds "its bad (!) 
pre-eminence, and science [has] actually retrograded ; this specific 
subject being only taken by fifteen departments in the whole 
kingdom." Again we read, "The inspectors themselves, with the 
noteworthy exception of Mr. Moncrieff, favour grammar and 
depreciate science." (Page 330.) This turning of the tide in the 
wrong direction, as many persons think, is sufficiently accounted 
for by the following considerations. In estimating the suitability 
of a subject for school education, we must consider not only its 
value per se, that is as knowledge, but its use as an educational 
agent in expanding and strengthening the powers of the mind, 
besides which it ought to be a subject suitable for an Examination 
paper. In the last two respects Science seems to me to have 
failed, while tried by this triple test no subjects have yet been 
found to equal Classics and Mathematics. 
Of the Revised Version of the New Testament, which appeared 
more than three years ago, we have as a Society hitherto taken no 
notice, none of our Members having made it the subject of a 
lecture. Possibly some fifty years hence, should it by that time 
be generally adopted, together with the Version of the Old 
Testament, which we are daily expecting, this silence of ours may 
be sarcastically pointed to as a proof how incapable every age is 
of appreciating its greatest blessings. Yet our descendants can 
never deny that its appearance was awaited with the most eager 
interest ; and it has had in many quarters a favourable reception. 
Eminent scholars have expressed approval of it, and many 
congregations have adopted it in their public services. And yet it 
can hardly be said to have fulfilled the just wishes and expectations 
of the country. That the discovery and opportunity of consulting 
so many uncial MSS. unknown to King James's Translators, 
notably, X, A, B, C, D, should have necessitated some alterations 
in the readings was of course to be expected. What the people 
