,,the ,,old ,,humanities ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,science 4 4 4 ,,presidential ,,address ,,to ,,the ,,classical ,,association ,,may #af1 #aiai ,illustration ,,the ,,old ,,humanities ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,science ,,by ,,sir ,,william ,,osler1 ,,bt41 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,with ,,introduction ,,by ,,harvey ,,cushing1 ,m4,d4 ,illustration ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton ,,mifflin ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press ,cambridge #aibj ,,copyright1 #aibj1 ,,by ,,houghton ,,mifflin ,,company ,,all ,,rights ,,reserved ,,introduction ,,in writing a prefatory note to an ,american reprint of this notable address there are three things to consider--the writer1 his subject1 and the occasion4 ,the greatly beloved author had a multitude of friends in all lands1 and far abler pens have written much concerning him during the past twelve months4 ,the subject is one of no less moment on this side of the ,atlantic than to those in older countries who concern themselves with scholarship and education1 though here the classicists are having a particularly hard struggle to retain in our academies1 schools1 and colleges a proper footing for the ancient languages and learning termed the humanities4 ,the circumstances under which the address was given are less familiar in this country than the author and his subject1 for we as yet have no corresponding organization1 or at least none with such an ambitious programme4 ,consequently it is appropriate that this note should dwell chiefly upon the occasion4 ,the ,classical ,association1 composed of a large body of university men1 teachers1 and schoolmasters1 with local branches in several places in ,great ,britain and her colonies1 was established in #aijd with this object3 ,to promote the development and maintain the well-being of classical studies and in particular3 7a7 ,to impress upon public opinion the claim of such studies to an eminent place in the national scheme of education2 7b7 ,to improve the practice of classical teaching by free discussion of its scope and methods2 7c7 ,to encourage investigation and call attention to new discoveries2 7d7 ,to create opportunities for friendly intercourse and co-operation among all lovers of classical learning in this country4 ,that ,sir ,william ,osler should have been chosen to preside over such an assembly of ,british scholars is no matter for surprise1 for though a humanist in the broad sense of the term as a student of human affairs and human nature1 rather than of ,latin and ,greek1 he at the same time was a wide reader with a relish for knowledge1 successful not only in its quest in many fields beyond that of his chosen profession1 but particularly so in his ability to hand his literary gleanings on to others in a new and attractive form4 ,nevertheless1 the presidency of the ,classical ,association1 considering the avowed objects of this body1 was a most signal honour in view of his reputation primarily as a scientist and teacher of medicine4 ,his immediate predecessor1 the ,professor of ,greek at ,christ ,church1 opened his presidential address of the year before with these words3 ,it is the general custom of this ,association to choose as its ,president alternately a classical scholar and a man of wide eminence outside the classics4 ,next year you are to have a man of science1 a great physician who is also famous in the world of learning and literature4 ,last year you had a statesman1 who1 though a statesman1 is also a great scholar and man of letters1 a sage and counsellor in the antique mould1 of world-wide fame and unique influence4 ,thus1 though in himself sufficiently representative of humanistic culture1 ,osler was in this strict sense an alternate1 and among the fourteen earlier ,presidents of the ,association three had like himself been ,fellows of the ,royal ,society1 which long since had abandoned even the pretence of concerning itself with classical studies which had been the very basis of the ,revival of ,learning4 ,the list of ,presidents since the foundation of the ,association may be a matter of interest to those in this country who may not have been aware of the existence and purposes of this organization of ,british scholars3 #aijd4 ,the ,right ,hon4 ,sir ,r4 ,h4 ,collins1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,master of the ,rolls4 #aije4 ,the ,right ,hon4 the ,earl of ,halsbury1 ,d4,c4,l41 ,f4,r4,s41 ,lord ,chancellor4 #aijf4 ,the ,right ,hon4 ,lord ,curzon of ,kedleston1 ,g4,c4,s4,i41 ,g4,c4,i4,e41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,f4,r4,s4 #aijg4 ,s4 ,h4 ,butcher1 ,esq41 ,m4,p41 ,litt4,d41 ,d4,litt41 ,,ll4,d4 #aijh4 ,the ,right ,hon4 ,h4 ,h4 ,asquith1 ,m4,p41 ,k4,c41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,prime ,minister4 #aiji4 ,the ,right ,hon4 the ,earl of ,cromer1 ,g4,c4,b41 ,o4,m41 ,k4,c4,s4,i41 ,,ll4,d4 #aiaj4 ,sir ,archibald ,geikie1 ,k4,c4,b41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,,ll4,d41 ,ph4,d41 ,president of the ,royal ,society4 #aiaa4 ,the ,right ,rev4 ,edward ,lee ,hicks1 ,d4,d41 ,lord ,bishop of ,lincoln4 #aiab4 ,the ,very ,rev4 ,henry ,montagu ,butler1 ,d4,d41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,,ll4,d41 ,master of ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge4 #aiac4 ,sir ,frederic ,g4 ,kenyon1 ,k4,c4,b41 ,d4,litt41 ,f4,b4,a41 ,head of the ,british ,museum4 #aiad4 ,professor ,william ,ridgeway1 ,litt4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,sc4,d41 ,f4,b4,a41 ,disney ,professor of ,archology1 ,cambridge4 #aiae4 ,sir ,w4 ,b4 ,richmond1 ,k4,c4,b41 ,r4,a41 ,d4,c4,l4 #aiaf4 ,the ,right ,hon4 ,viscount ,bryce1 ,o4,m41 ,d4,c4,l41 ,,ll4,d41 ,p4,b4,a41 ,f4,r4,s4 #aiag4 ,professor ,gilbert ,murray1 ,,ll4,d41 ,d4,litt41 ,f4,b4,a41 ,f4,r4,s4,l41 ,christ ,church1 ,oxford4 ,as reported in the ,annual ,proceedings of the ,association1 ,professor ,murray at the meeting in #aiah1 in nominating his successor1 spoke of him as a man1 who is not only one of the most eminent physicians in the world1 but represents in a peculiar way the learned physician who was one of the marked characters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries1 and stands for a type of culture which the ,classical ,association does not wish to see die out of the world--the culture of a man who1 while devoting himself to his special science1 keeps nevertheless a broad basis of interest in letters of all kinds4 ,in seconding this proposal1 ,sir ,frederic ,kenyon pointed out that it had come at a very appropriate time in the work of the ,association1 for3 ,during this last year our main activity has been directed towards getting representatives of ,natural ,science and of the ,humanities to work together1 on the principle that those subjects never should be in conflict with one another1 but merely in friendly competition4 ,both are equally essential for a liberal education4 ,it is a continuation and a symbol of that policy that we should ask ,sir ,william ,osler to become our ,president1 and that he should have accepted cordially and readily1 as he did4 ,he is eminent as a man of science1 is ,president of the ,bibliographical ,society1 and represents scholarship in medicine in its best form4 ,it is quite possible that these last remarks may have suggested to the succeeding ,president an appropriate topic for his address1 for he told the writer a few months later that he planned to talk on ,science and the ,humanities4 ,he was already turning the matter over in his mind1 but where he found time or inclination to write the address it is difficult to imagine4 ,staggered by the loss of his son1 an only child1 who had fallen in action near ,st4 ,julien during the ,passchendaele battles in ,september the year before1 his days occupied with a succession of duties in connection with the war1 his household filled as always with friends and visitors innumerable1 and every young ,american or ,canadian in service in ,england gravitating there1 eager above all things to further the progress of the elaborate catalogue of his unique and valuable collection of books1 he nevertheless set himself to prepare this1 one of his most brilliant and what proved to be his last formal address4 ,the meeting of the ,association was to be held in ,oxford1 the bed-rock of classical learning--the only place1 it seems1 where the word humanism in its narrow sense still survives in modern university terminology as that part of the curriculum known as ,litter ,humaniores4 ,as was characteristic of his methods1 the mere address itself did not suffice1 but he prepared for the occasion in other ways4 ,thus he collected from the various ,oxford colleges and placed on exhibition an array of historical objects illustrating the important part ,oxford had once played in science and natural philosophy in days antedating the ,royal ,society which had its seeds of origin there4 ,in addition1 and as a possible offset to this1 he exhibited from his own collection of books those volumes which constituted in their original editions the outstanding classics in ,science and ,medicine4 ,a small pamphlet concerning them reads as follows3 ,faced with a bewildering variety and ever-increasing literature1 how is the hard-pressed student to learn-- #a4 ,the evolution of knowledge in any subject2 #b4 ,the life and work of the men who made the original contributions8 ,so far as concerns ,science and ,medicine1 an attempt is made to answer the question by the collection of a ,bibliotheca ,prima1 examples from which are here shown4 ,the idea is to have in a comparatively small number of works the essential literature grouped about the men of the first rank1 arranged in chronological order4 ,i have put out the editiones principes of twenty of such works4 ,the fundamental contribution may be represented by a great ,aldine edition1 e4g4 ,aristotle1 by the brief communication such as that of ,darwin and ,wallace in the ,proceedings of the ,linnean ,society1 #aheh1 or by a three-page pamphlet of ,roentgen4 ,from the card lists of ,galen1 ,hippocrates1 ,vesalius1 and ,harvey1 those interested will see the aim and scope of the collection4 ,the works on exhibition are3 ,plato #aeac ,hippocrates #aebf ,aristotle #adie-ih ,theophrastus #adhc ,galen #aebe ,dioscorides #adii ,celsus #adgh ,plotinus #adib ,rhazes #adgf ,avicenna #adhf 7not ed4 pr47 ,averrhoes #adgc ,copernicus #aedc ,vesalius #aedc ,agricola #aeef ,gilbert #afjj ,bacon #afbj ,galileo #afcb ,harvey #afbh ,descartes #afcg ,newton #afhg ,though it is hardly pertinent to this introductory note1 the temptation is strong to dwell further on the treasures of his library4 ,these mentioned above were but samples from the ,bibliotheca ,prima1 and the superb collection1 with copious notes on each separate item1 is further subdivided into some seven sections--,bibliotheca ,secunda1 historica1 biographica1 literaria1 the incunabulas1 and so on4 ,he was for seven years ,president of the ,bibliographical ,society and as great a lover of books as of men1 but it should be borne in mind that his library was being collected and catalogued1 not as a series of treasures by reason of their rarity1 but were regarded as instruments for the advancement of knowledge1 and with this end in view the collection was bequeathed to ,mc,gill ,university4 ,by good fortune1 letters which give interesting descriptions of the effect of the address have been received from two distinguished members of ,sir ,william's audience1 one of them an eminent classical scholar1 the other an eminent scientist4 ,sir ,frederic ,kenyon writes that3 ,the delivery of ,sir ,william ,osler's address was a very memorable occasion4 ,as can be seen by those who read it1 it was full of learning1 of humour1 of feeling1 of eloquence1 and it contained suggestions of real weight with regard to the interconnection of science and the humanities4 ,but it gained much in delivery from the personality of the speaker4 ,no one could hear it without being impressed by his width of outlook1 by his easy mastery of great tracts of literature and learning1 by his all-embracing humanity in the widest sense of the term4 ,i hope it made many students of science anxious to extend their knowledge of classical literature2 ,i know it made one student of the classics wish that he had a wider knowledge of natural science4 ,osler himself was a well-nigh perfect example of the union of science and the humanities1 which to some of us is the ideal of educational progress2 and his address embodied the whole spirit of this ideal4 ,professor ,william ,h4 ,welch has given the following account3 ,most fortunately for me my last visit to the ,oslers' in ,oxford happened to be on ,friday1 ,may #af1 #aiai1 when ,osler delivered his presidential address before the ,classical ,association4 ,of the many honours which came to ,osler few gave him so great pleasure1 as well as surprise1 as his election to the presidency of the ,british ,classical ,association4 ,this was a recognition1 not merely of his sympathetic interest in classical studies and intimate association with classical scholars1 but also of his mastery of certain phases of the subject1 especially the bibliographical and historical sides1 and the relation of the work and thought of classical antiquity to the development of medicine1 science1 and culture4 ,there have been physicians1 especially in ,england1 well known for their attainments as classical scholars1 but ,i am not aware that since ,linacre there has come to a member of the medical profession distinction in this field comparable to ,osler's election to the presidency of the ,british ,classical ,association4 ,osler told me that he had never given so much time and thought to the preparation of an address as he did to this one4 ,the occasion and the whole setting were to me most interesting and impressive4 ,at noon the audience of distinguished scholars and guests assembled in the ,divinity ,room1 the most beautiful assembly room in ,oxford4 ,at one end of the hall the ,vice-,chancellor of the ,university presided and halfway down one of the sides was the high seat of the orator4 ,the distinguished company1 the brightly coloured academic gowns and hoods1 the traditional ceremonies for such an occasion in ,oxford1 the figure of ,osler himself1 the charm and interest of the address and its cordial appreciation and reception by the audience1 all combined to make a scene of brilliancy and delight which ,i shall always carry in my memory4 ,at the close of the address the vote of thanks was moved by ,sir ,herbert ,warren1 the ,president of ,magdalen ,college1 who described ,osler as the modern ,galen1 and was seconded by ,sir ,john ,barran1 the member of ,parliament from ,leeds1 in felicitous words of discriminating praise of the ,president's address4 ,the audience responded most enthusiastically4 ,i shall never forget the hour which ,i spent with ,osler just before the address1 in inspecting the wonderful collection of scientific instruments of historical interest which ,mr4 ,gunther had assembled at ,osler's request from the various colleges at ,oxford1 especially from ,merton1 the old home of science4 ,an interesting descriptive catalogue of the collection had been prepared4 ,with what delight ,osler showed me and told me the histories and associations of the astrolabes1 armillary spheres1 orreries1 telescopes1 lenses1 microscopes1 books1 etc41 which he had caused to be gathered together in connection with the meeting of the ,classical ,association6 ,you will recognize a characteristic touch and thought of ,osler in arranging for such an original exhibit to interest a meeting of scholars4 ,when not long after the address ,i said good-bye to ,osler ,i little thought that it was to be our final parting1 but ,i rejoice to have been with him then and to remember him as ,i saw him last on that triumphal day4 ,thus1 though from first to last his heart was wrapped up in his profession and its science1 his mind was open to other things1 and his confession that the ,religio ,medici was the second book he ever purchased and that the particular copy had always remained at his bedside is not without significance4 ,he lived to prove himself1 not only a worthy disciple of those scholars of the ,renascence who interested themselves in natural philosophy1 but also of those who were devotees of the ancient languages and literature4 ,but ,sir ,william ,osler was a man first--a physician and scholar afterward2 and beneath his high spirits1 his love of fun1 lay an infinite compassion and tenderness toward his humankind4 ,write me as one who loves his fellow-men4 ,and upon few men has such a measure of admiration1 affection1 and love been bestowed in return4 ,these things he bore without pride1 as he bore his great success in life with humility4 ,on ,july #ab1 #aiai1 less than two months after the address was delivered1 he attained his seventieth year1 and was presented with two volumes containing sixty-seven original ,contributions to ,medical and ,biological ,research written in his honour4 ,in addition to this1 tributes were showered upon him from all sides1 and his work1 character1 and accomplishments became the subject of papers innumerable4 ,it was an extraordinary outburst1 one of those exceptional occurrences when people do not wait for the passing--in this case so near at hand--to say1 what is in their hearts to say1 of the life of a friend4 ,a brief characterization of him from one of the most eminent of ,british scholars was quoted early in this note1 and it may be fitting to close with some lines by the dean of ,american classical scholars1 ,basil ,l4 ,gildersleeve1 written for what proved to be his last birthday3 ,,on ,a ,,portrait ,,of ,,sir ,,william ,,osler1 ,,bart4 ,william the ,fowler1 ,guillaume l',oiseleur6 ,i love to call him thus1 and when ,i scan ,the counterfeit presentment of the man1 ,i feel his net1 ,i hear his arrows whir4 ,make at the homely surname no demur1 ,nor on a nomination lay a ban ,with which a line of sovran lords began1 ,henry the ,fowler was first ,emperor4 ,asclepius was ,apollo's chosen son1 ,but to that son he never lent his bow1 ,nor did ,hephstus teach to forge his net2 ,both secrets hath ,imperial ,osler won4 ,his winged words straight to their quarry go4 ,all hearts are holden by his meshes yet4 ,,harvey ,,cushing ,brookline ,february #ah1 #aibj ,,the ,,old ,,humanities ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,science ,,the ,,old ,,humanities ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,science ,i ,early in the sixteenth century a literary joke sent inextinguishable laughter through the learned circles of ,europe4 ,the ,epistol ,obscurorum ,virorum is great literature1 to which ,i refer for two reasons--its standard is an exact gauge of my scholarship1 and had ,magister ,nostrandus ,ortuinus ,gratius of ,cologne1 to whom most of the letters are addressed1 been asked to join that wicked ,erfurt ,circle1 he could not have been more surprised than ,i was to receive a gracious invitation to preside over this gathering of ,british scholars4 ,i felt to have been sailing under false colours to have ever1 by pen or tongue1 suggested the possession of even the traditional small ,latin and less ,greek4 ,relieved by the assurance that in alternate years the qualification of your ,president was an interest in education and literature1 ,i gladly accepted1 not1 however1 without such anticipatory qualms as afflict an amateur at the thought of addressing a body of experts4 ,not an educated man in the ,oxford sense1 yet faint memories of the classics linger--the result of ten years of such study as lads of my generation pursued1 memories best expressed in ,tom ,hood's lines3 ,the weary tasks ,i used to con6 ,the hopeless leaves ,i wept upon6 ,most fruitless leaves to me6 ,in a life of teaching and practice1 a mere picker-up of learning's crumbs is made to realize the value of the humanities in science not less than in general culture4 ,to have a ,professor of ,medicine in this ,chair gives to the ,oxford meeting an appropriate renaissance--shall we say medival8--flavour1 and one may be pardoned the regret that the meeting is not being held in ,may1 #aeai1 to have had the pleasure of listening to an address from a real ,oxford scholar-physician1 an early teacher of ,greek in this ,university1 and the founder of the ,royal ,college of ,physicians1 whose ,rudimenta ,grammatices and ,de ,emendata ,structura ,latini ,sermonis upheld for a generation1 on the ,continent at least1 the reputation of ,english scholarship4 ,these noble walls1 themselves an audience--indeed1 most appreciative of audiences--have storied memories of ,linacre's voice1 and the basis of the keen judgment of ,erasmus may have been formed by intercourse with him in this very school4 ,in those happy days1 to know ,hippocrates and ,galen was to know disease and to be qualified to practise2 and my profession looks back in grateful admiration to such great medical humanists as ,linacre and ,caius and ,rabelais4 ,nor can ,i claim to speak for pure science1 some salt of which remains from early association1 and from a lifelong attempt to correlate with art a science which makes medicine1 ,i was going to say the only--but it is more civil to say the most--progressive of the learned professions4 ,to have lived right through an epoch1 matched only by two in the story of the race1 to have shared in its long struggle1 to have witnessed its final victory 7and in my own case1 to be left ,i trust with wit enough to realize its significance7--to have done this has been a wonderful privilege4 ,to have outgrown age-old theories of man and of nature1 to have seen west separated from east in the tangled skein of human thought1 to have lived in a world re-making--these are among the thrills and triumphs of the ,victorian of my generation4 ,to a childhood and youth came echoes of the controversy that ,aristarchus began1 ,copernicus continued1 and ,darwin ended1 that put the microcosm into line with the macrocosm1 and for the golden age of ,eden substituted the tellus dura of ,lucretius4 ,think of the ,cimmerian darkness out of which our generation has1 at any rate1 blazed a path6 ,picture the mental state of a community which could produce ,omphalos3 ,an ,attempt to untie the ,geological ,knot6#a ,i heard warm clerical discussions on its main thesis1 that the fossils were put into the earth's strata to test men's faith in the ,mosaic account of the creation1 and our ,professor of ,natural ,theology lectured seriously upon it6 ,the intellectual unrest of those days wrapped many in that dyvine cloude of unknowynge1 by which happy phrase ,brother ,herp designates medival mysticism2 and not a bad thing for a young man to live through1 as sufficient infection usually remains to enable him to understand1 if not to sympathize with1 mental states alien or even hostile4 #a ,by the distinguished naturalist ,philip ,henry ,gosse4 ,an ,age of ,force followed the final subjugation of ,nature4 ,the dynamo replaced the steam-engine1 radiant energy revealed the hidden secrets of matter1 to the conquest of the earth was added the control of the air and the mastery of the deep4 ,nor was it only an ,age of ,force4 ,never before had man done so much for his brother1 the victory over the powers of ,nature meant also glorious victories of peace2 pestilences were checked1 the cry of the poor became articulate1 and to help the life of the submerged half became a sacred duty of the other4 ,how full we were of the pride of life6 ,in #aiaj at ,edinburgh ,i ended an address on ,man's ,redemption of ,man with the well-known lines of ,shelley beginning1 ,happiness and ,science dawn though late upon the earth4 ,and now1 having survived the greatest war in history1 and a great victory1 with the wreckage of medival autonomy to clear up1 our fears are lest we may fail to control the fretful forces of ,caliban1 and our hopes are to rebuild ,jerusalem in this green and pleasant land4 ,never before in its long evolution has the race realized its full capacity4 ,our fathers have told us1 and we ourselves have known1 of glorious sacrifices2 but the past four years have exhausted in every direction the possibilities of human effort4 ,and1 as usual1 among the nations the chief burden has fallen on that weary ,titan1 the ,motherland1 ,bearing on shoulders immense1 ,atlantean1 the load ,well-nigh not to be borne ,of the too vast orb of her fate4 ,not alone did she furnish the sinews of war1 but she developed a spirit that made defeat impossible4 ,no wonder war has advocates1 to plead the heroic clash of ideals1 the purging of a nation's dross in the fire of suffering and sacrifice1 and the welding in one great purpose of a scattered people4 ,even ,montaigne1 sanest of men1 called it the greatest and most magnificent of human actions2 and the glamours of its pride1 pomp1 and circumstance still captivate4 ,but there are other sides which we should face without shrinking4 ,why dwell on the horrors such as we doctors and nurses have had to see8 ,enough to say that war blasts the soul1 and in this great conflict the finer sense of humanity has been shocked to paralysis by the helplessness of our civilization and the futility of our religion to stem a wave of primitive barbarism4 ,black as are the written and unwritten pages of history1 the concentrated and prolonged martyrdom surpasses anything man has yet had to endure4 ,what a shock to the proud and mealy-mouthed ,victorian who had begun to trust that ,love was creation's final law1 forgetting that ,egypt and ,babylon are our contemporaries and of yesterday in comparison with the hundreds of thousands of years since the cave-dwellers left their records on walls and bones4 ,in the mystic shadow of the ,golden ,bough1 and swayed by the emotions of our savage ancestors1 we stand aghast at the revelation of the depth and ferocity of primal passions which reveal the unchangeableness of human nature4 ,when the wild beast of ,plato's dream becomes a waking reality1 and a herd-emotion of hate sweeps a nation off its feet1 the desolation that follows is wider than that in ,france and ,belgium1 wider even than the desolation of grief1 and something worse--the hardened heart1 the lie in the soul--so graphically described in ,book ,,ii of the ,republic--that forces us to do accursed things1 and even to defend them6 ,i refer to it because1 as professors1 we have been accused of sinning against the light4 ,of course we have4 ,over us1 too1 the wave swept1 but ,i protest against the selection of us for special blame4 ,the other day1 in an address on ,the ,comradeship of ,letters at ,turin1 ,president ,wilson is reported to have said3 ,it is one of the great griefs of this war that the universities of the ,central ,empires used the thoughts of science to destroy mankind2 it is the duty of the universities of these states to redeem science from this disgrace and to show that the pulse of humanity beats in the classroom1 and that there are sought out not the secrets of death but the secrets of life4 ,a pious and worthy wish6 ,but once in war a nation mobilizes every energy1 and to say that science has been prostituted in discovering means of butchery is to misunderstand the situation4 ,slaughter1 wholesale and unrestricted1 is what is sought1 and to accomplish this the discoveries of the sainted ,faraday and of the gentle ,dalton are utilized to the full1 and to their several nations scientific men render this service freely1 if not gladly4 ,that the mental attitude engendered by science is apt to lead to a gross materialism is a vulgar error4 ,scientific men1 in mufti or in uniform1 are not more brutal than their fellows1 and the utilization of their discoveries in warfare should not be a greater reproach to them than is our joyous acceptance of their success4 ,what a change of heart after the appalling experience of the first gassing in #aiae6 ,nothing more piteously horrible than the sufferings of the victims has ever been seen in warfare4#b ,surely we could not sink to such barbarity6 ,is thy servant a dog8 ,but martial expediency soon compelled the ,allies to enlist the resources of chemistry2 the instruction of our enemies was soon bettered1 and before the ,armistice there were developments in technique and destructive force that would have delighted ,nisroch1 who first invented aerial machinations to plague the sons of men4 ,a group of medical men representing the chief universities and medical bodies of the ,united ,kingdom was innocent enough to suggest that such an unclean weapon--the use of lethal gases1 condemning its victims to death by long-drawn-out torture1 and with infinite possibilities for its further development--should be forever abolished4 ,steeped in folly by theories and prepossessions1 failure to read the lessons of war which should have sufficed to convince a beetle--such were among the newspaper comments2 and in other ways we were given to understand that our interference in such matters was most untimely4 ,all the same1 it is gratifying to see that the suggestion has been adopted at the ,peace ,congress4 #b ,i am sorry to have seen ,sargent's picture ,gassed in this year's ,academy4 ,it haunts the mind like a nightmare4 ,with what a howl of righteous indignation the slaughter of our innocent women and children by the bombing of open towns was received6 ,it was a dirty and bloody business1 worthy of the ,oxydracians by means of ,levin-bolts and ,thunders and more horrible1 more frightful1 more diabolical1 maiming1 breaking1 tearing1 and slaying more folk and confounding men's senses and throwing down more walls than would a hundred thunderbolts4#c #c ,rabelais1 ,book ,,iv1 ch4 ,,lxi4 ,against reprisals there was at first a strong feeling4 ,early in #aiaf ,i wrote to the ,times3 ,the cry for reprisals illustrates the exquisitely hellish state of mind into which war plunges even sensible men4 ,not a pacifist1 but a 'last-ditcher1' yet ,i refuse to believe that as a nation1 how bitter soever the provocation1 we shall stain our hands in the blood of the innocent4 ,in this matter let us be free from bloodguiltiness1 and let not the undying reproach of humanity rest on us as on the ,germans4 ,two years changed me into an ordinary barbarian4 ,a detailed tally of civilians killed by our airmen has not1 ,i believe1 been published1 but the total figures quoted are not far behind the ,german4 ,could a poll have been taken a week before the ,armistice as to the moral justification of the bombing of ,berlin--for which we were ready--how we should have howled at the proposer of any doubt6 ,and many ,jonahs were displeased that a city greater than ,nineveh1 with more than the threescore and ten thousand who knew not the right hand from the left1 had been spared4 ,we may deplore the necessity and lament1 as did a certain great personage3 444 ,yet public reason just-- ,honour and empire with revenge enlarged 444 compels me now ,to do what else1 though damned1 ,i should abhor4 ,all the same1 we considered ourselves ,christians of the best edition1 all picked and culled1 and the churches remained open1 prayers rose to ,jehovah1 many of whose priests--even his bishops6--were in khaki1 and quit themselves like men--yes1 and scores died the death of heroes6 ,into such hells of inconsistency does war plunge the best of us6 ,learning--new or old--seems a vain thing to save a nation1 but possibly1 as a set-off1 science1 as represented by cellulose and sulphuric acid1 may yet prove the best bulwark of civilization6 ,in his ,history of the ,origin of ,medicine1#d ,lettsom maintains that the invention of firearms has done more to prevent the destruction of the human species than any other discovery2 he says3 ,invention and discernment of mind have made it possible to reverse the ancient maxim that strength has always prevailed over wisdom4 ,science alone may prevent a repetition of the story of ,egypt1 of ,babylonia1 of ,greece1 and of ,rome4 ,the suggestion seems brazen effrontery when we have not even given the world the equivalent of the ,pax ,romana6 ,ah6 what a picture of self-satisfied happiness in ,plutarch6 ,one envies that placid life in the midst of the only great peace the world has known1 spanning a period of more than two hundred years4 ,and he could say1 ,no tumults1 no civil sedition1 no tyrannies1 no pestilences nor calamities depopulating ,greece1 no epidemic disease needing powerful and choice drugs and medicines2 though as a ,delphic priest there is a pathetic lament that the ,pythian priestess has now only commonplace questions to deal with4#e ,surely those cultivated men of his circle must have felt that their house could never be removed4 ,has ,science reached such control over ,nature that she will enable our civilization to escape the law of the ,ephesian1 written on all known records--panta rei8 ,perhaps so1 now that material civilization is world-wide2 cataclysmic forces1 powerful enough in centres of origin1 may weaken as they pass out in circles4 ,let this be our hope in the present crisis4 ,at any rate1 in the free democracies in which ,demos with safety says ,l'tat c'est moi1 it has yet to be determined whether ,science1 as the embodiment of a mechanical force1 can rule without invoking ruin4 ,two things are clear3 there must be a very different civilization or there will be no civilization at all2 and the other is that neither the old religion combined with the old learning1 nor both with the new science1 suffice to save a nation bent on self-destruction4 ,the suicide of ,germany1 the outstanding fact of the war1 followed an outburst of national megalomania4 ,for she had religion--it may shock some of you to hear6 ,i mean the people1 not the writers or the thinkers1 but the people for whom ,luther lived and ,huss died4 ,of the two devotional ceremonies which stand supreme in my memory1 one was a service in the ,dom1 ,berlin1 in which not the great nor well bespoke1 but the mere uncounted folk sang ,luther's great hymn ,ein' feste ,burg ist unser ,gott4#f ,with the ,humanities ,germany never broke1 and the proportion of students in her schools and universities who studied ,greek and ,latin has been higher than in any other country4 ,you know better than ,i the innumerable classical studies of her scholars4 ,in classical learning relating to science and medicine she simply had the field2 for one scholar in other countries she had a dozen1 and the monopoly of journals relating to the history of these subjects4 ,and she had science1 and led the world in the application of the products of the laboratory to the uses of every-day life--in commerce1 in the arts1 and in war4 ,withal1 like ,jeshurun1 she waxed fat2 and did ever such pride go before such destruction8 ,what a tragedy that the successors of ,virchow and ,traube and ,helmholtz and ,billroth should have made her a byword among the nations6 ,lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds6 #d #aggh1 p4 #cj4 #e ,why the ,pythian ,priestess1 etc4 7,plutarch's ,morals1 vol4 ,,iii1 p4 #ajj1 ,goodwin's edition74 #f ,and the other1 how different6 ,the crowded ,blue ,mosque of ,cairo1 and the crowded streets with the thousands of kneeling ,moslems awaiting the cry of the muezzin from the tower4 ,,ii ,so much preliminary to the business before us1 to meet changed conditions as practical men1 with the reinforcement born of hope or with the strong resolution of despair4 ,for what does this ,association stand8 ,what are these classical interests that you represent8 ,take a familiar simile4 ,by a very simple trick1 you remember1 did ,empedocles give ,menippus in the moon-halt--the first stage of his memorable trip--such long and clear vision that he saw the tribes of men like a nest of ants1 a seething mass going to and fro at their different tasks4 ,of the function of the classical members in this myrmecic community there can be no question4 ,neither warriors1 nor slaves1 nor neuters1 you live in a well-protected social environment1 heretofore free from enemies1 and have been well taken care of4 ,i hate to speak of you as larv1 but as such you perform a duty of the greatest import in this trophidium stage of your existence4 ,let me explain4 ,from earliest days much attention has been paid by naturalists to the incredible affection --incredible ,greek3 storg1 ,swammerdam calls it--which ants display in feeding1 licking1 and attending the larv4 ,disturb a nest1 and the chief care is to take them to a place of safety4 ,this attention is what our symphilic community--to use a biological term--bestows on you4 ,so intensely altruistic1 apparently1 is this behaviour1 that for the very word ,greek3 storg1 which expresses the tenderest of all feelings1 there is a difficulty in finding an equivalent2 indeed1 ,gilbert ,white used it almost as an ,english word4 ,the truth is really very different4 ,it has been shown that the nursing function--or instinct--is really trophallactic4 ,in the case of the ant the nurse places the larva on its back1 and the broad ventral surface serves as a trough for the food1 often predigested4 ,the skill and devotion with which this is done are among the wonders in the life of the insect to which moralists have never tired of urging a visit4 ,but listen to the sequel6 ,the larva is provided with a pair of rich honey-bags in the shape of salivary glands1 big exudatoria from which is discharged an ambrosia greedily lapped up by the nurse1 who with this considers herself well paid for her care4 ,in the same manner1 when the assiduous ,v4,a4,d4 wasp distributes food to the larv1 the heads of which eagerly protrude from their cells1 she must be paid by a draught of nectar from their exudatoria1 while if it is not forthcoming the wasp seizes the head of the larva in her mandibles and jams it back into its cell and compels it to pay up4 ,the lazy males will play the same game and even steal the much-sought liquid without any compensatory gift of nourishment4#g #g ,professor ,wheeler in ,proceedings of ,amer4 ,phil4 ,soc41 vol4 ,,lvii1 no4 #d1 #aiah4 ,what does the community at large1 so careful of your comforts1 expect from you8 ,surely the honey-dew and the milk of paradise secreted from your classical exudatoria1 which we lap up greedily in recensions1 monographs1 commentaries1 histories1 translations1 and brochures4 ,among academic larv you have for centuries absorbed the almost undivided interest of the nest1 and not without reason1 for the very life of the workers depends on the hormones you secrete4 ,though small in number1 your group has an enormous kinetic value1 like our endocrine organs4 ,for man's body1 too1 is a humming hive of working cells1 each with its specific function1 all under central control of the brain and heart1 and all dependent on materials called hormones 7secreted by small1 even insignificant-looking structures7 which lubricate the wheels of life4 ,for example1 remove the thyroid gland just below the ,adam's apple1 and you deprive man of the lubricants which enable his thought-engines to work--it is as if you cut off the oil-supply of a motor--and gradually the stored acquisitions of his mind cease to be available1 and within a year he sinks into dementia4 ,the normal processes of the skin cease1 the hair falls1 the features bloat1 and the paragon of animals is transformed into a shapeless caricature of humanity4 ,these essential lubricators1 of which a number are now known1 are called hormones--you will recognize from its derivation how appropriate is the term4 ,now1 the men of your guild secrete materials which do for society at large what the thyroid gland does for the individual4 ,the ,humanities are the hormones4 ,our friend ,mr4 ,p4 ,s4 ,allen read before this ,association a most suggestive paper on the historical evolution of the word ,humanism4 ,i like to think of the pleasant-flavoured word as embracing all the knowledge of the ancient classical world--what man knew of nature as well as what he knew of himself4 ,let us see what this university means by the ,liter ,humaniores4 ,the ,greats papers for the past decade make interesting study4 ,with singular uniformity there is diversity enough to bear high tribute to the ingenuity of the examiners4 ,but1 comparing the subjects in #aiah with those in the first printed papers of the school in #ahca1 one is surprised to find them the same--practically no change in the eighty-seven years6 ,compare them1 again1 with the subjects given in ,john ,napleton's ,considerations in #aggc--no change6 and with the help of ,rashdall we may trace the story of the studies in arts1 only to find that as far back as #abfg1 with different names sometimes1 they have been through all the centuries essentially the same--,greek and ,latin authors1 logic1 rhetoric1 grammar1 and the philosophies1 natural1 moral1 and metaphysical--practically the seven liberal arts for which1 as you may see by the names over the doors1 ,bodley's building provided accommodation4 ,why this invariableness in an ever-turning world8 ,one of the marvels1 so commonplace that it has ceased to be marvellous1 is the deep rooting of our civilization in the soil of ,greece and ,rome--much of our dogmatic religion1 practically all the philosophies1 the models of our literature1 the ideals of our democratic freedom1 the fine and the technical arts1 the fundamentals of science1 and the basis of our law4 ,the ,humanities bring the student into contact with the master minds who gave us these things--with the dead who never die1 with those immortal lives not of now nor of yesterday1 but which always were4 ,as true to-day as in the fifth century ,b4,c4 the name of ,hellas stands no longer for the name of a race1 but as the name of knowledge2 or1 as more tersely put by ,maine1 ,except the blind forces of ,nature1 nothing moves intellectually1 he means in this world that is not ,greek in origin4 ,man's anabasis from the old priest-ridden civilizations of the ,east began when the light of reason lighted up all things1 with which saying ,anaxagoras expressed our modern outlook on life4 ,the ,humanities have been a subject of criticism in two directions4 ,their overwhelming prominence1 it is claimed1 prevents the development of learning in other and more useful directions2 and the method of teaching is said to be antiquated and out of touch with the present needs4 ,they control the academic life of ,oxford4 ,an analysis of the ,register for #aiai shows that of the #beg men comprising the ,heads and ,fellows of the twenty-three colleges 7including ,st4 ,edmund's ,hall71 only fifty-one are scientific1 including the mathematicians4 ,it is not very polite1 perhaps1 to suggest that as transmitters and interpreters they should not bulk quite so large in a modern university4 ',twas all very well 444 in days when wits were fresh and clear ,and life ran gaily as the sparkling ,thames-- in those happy days when it was felt that all knowledge had been garnered by those divine men of old time1 that there was nothing left but to enjoy the good things harvested by such universal providers as ,isidore1 ,rabanus ,maurus1 and ,vincent of ,beauvais1 and those stronger dishes served by such artists as ,albertus ,magnus and ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas--delicious blends of such skill that only the palate of an ,apicius could separate ,greek1 ,patristic1 and ,arabian savours4 ,it is not the dominance1 but the unequal dominance that is a cause of just complaint4 ,as to methods of teaching--by their fruits ye shall know them4 ,the product of ,greats needs no description in this place4 ,many deny the art to find the mind's construction in the face1 but surely not the possibility of diagnosing at a glance a first in ,greats6 ,only in him is seen that altogether superior expression1 that self-consciousness of having reached life's goal1 of having1 in that pickled sentence of ,dean ,gaisford's ,christmas sermon1 done something that not only elevates above the common herd1 but leads not unfrequently to positions of considerable emolument4 ,many are the wand-bearers1 few are the mystics1 and a system should not be judged by the exceptions4 ,as a discipline of the mind for the few1 the system should not be touched1 and we should be ready to sacrifice a holocaust of undergraduates every year to produce in each generation a scholar of the type of1 say1 ,ingram ,bywater4 ',tis ,nature's method--does it not cost some thousands of eggs and fry to produce one salmon8 ,but the average man1 not of scholar timber1 may bring one railing accusation against his school and college4 ,apart from mental discipline1 the value of the ancient languages is to give a key to their literatures4 ,yet we make boys and young men spend ten or more years on the study of ,greek and ,latin1 at the end of which time the beauties of the languages are still hidden because of the pernicious method in which they are taught4 ,it passes my understanding how the more excellent way of ,montaigne1 of ,milton1 and of ,locke should have been neglected until recently4 ,make the language an instrument to play with and to play with thoroughly1 and recognize that except for the few in ,mods4 and ,greats it is superfluous to know how the instrument is constructed1 or to dissect the neuro-muscular mechanism by which it is played4 ,it is satisfactory to read that the ,greek ,curriculum ,committee thinks it is possible in a comparatively short time to acquire a really valuable knowledge of ,greek1 and to learn to read with accuracy and fair fluency some of the most important works in ,greek literature4 ,i am sure of it1 if the teacher will go to school to ,montaigne and feed fat against that old scoundrel ,protagoras a well-earned grudge for inventing grammar--pace ,mr4 ,livingstone1 every chapter in whose two books appeal to me1 except those on grammar1 against which ,i have a medullary prejudice4 ,i speak1 of course1 as a fool among the wise1 and ,i am not pleading for the ,greats men1 but for the average man1 whom to infect with the spirit of the ,humanities is the greatest single gift in education4 ,to you of the elect this is pure camouflage--the amateur talking to the experts2 but there is another side upon which ,i feel something may be said by one whose best friends have been the old ,humanists1 and whose breviary is ,plutarch1 or rather ,plutarch gallicized by ,montaigne4 ,paraphrasing ,mark ,twain's comment upon ,christian ,science1 the so-called ,humanists have not enough ,science1 and ,science sadly lacks the ,humanities4 ,this unhappy divorce1 which should never have taken place1 has been officially recognized in the two reports edited by ,sir ,frederic ,kenyon1#h which have stirred the pool1 and cannot but be helpful4 ,to have got constructive1 anabolic action from representatives of interests so diverse is most encouraging4 ,while all agree that neither in the public schools nor in the older universities are the conditions at present in keeping with the urgent scientific needs of the nation1 the specific is not to be sought in endowments alone1 but in the leaven which may work a much-needed change in both branches of knowledge4 #h ,education1 ,scientific and ,humane 7#aiag71 and ,education1 ,secondary and ,university 7#aiai74 ,,iii ,the ,school of ,liter ,humaniores excites wonder in the extent and variety of the knowledge demanded1 and there is everywhere evidence of the value placed upon the ancient models2 but this wonder pales before the gasping astonishment at what is not there4 ,now and again a hint1 a reference1 a recognition1 but the moving forces which have made the modern world are simply ignored4 ,yet they are all ,hellenic1 all part and parcel of the ,humanities in the true sense1 and all of prime importance in modern education4 ,twin berries on one stem1 grievous damage has been done to both in regarding the ,humanities and ,science in any other light than complemental4 ,perhaps the anomalous position of science in our philosophical school is due to the necessary filtration1 indeed the preservation1 of our classical knowledge1 through ecclesiastical channels4 ,of this the persistence of the ,augustinian questions until late in the eighteenth century is an interesting indication4 ,the moulder of ,western ,christianity had not much use for science1 and the ,greek spirit was stifled in the atmosphere of the ,middle ,ages4 ,content to be deceived1 to live in a twilight of fiction1 under clouds of false witnesses1 inventing according to convenience1 and glad to welcome the forger and the cheat--such1 as ,lord ,acton somewhere says1 were the ,middle ,ages4 ,strange1 is it not8 that one man alone1 ,roger ,bacon1 mastered his environment and had a modern outlook4#i #i ,how modern ,bacon's outlook was may be judged from the following sentence3 ,experimental science has three great prerogatives over all other sciences--it verifies conclusions by direct experiment1 it discovers truths which they could never reach1 and it investigates the secrets of nature and opens to us a knowledge of the past and of the future4 ,the practical point for us here is that in the only school dealing with the philosophy of human thought1 the sources of the new science that has made a new world are practically ignored4 ,one gets even an impression of neglect in the schools1 or at any rate of scant treatment1 of the ,ionian philosophers1 the very fathers of your fathers4 ,few ,greats men1 ,i fear1 could tell why ,hippocrates is a living force to-day1 or why a modern scientific physician would feel more at home with ,erasistratus and ,herophilus at ,alexandria1 or with ,galen at ,pergamos1 than at any period in our story up to1 say1 ,harvey4 ,except as a delineator of character1 what does the ,oxford scholar know of ,theophrastus1 the founder of modern botany1 and a living force to-day in one of the two departments of biology1 and made accessible to ,english readers--perhaps indeed to ,greek readers6--by ,sir ,arthur ,hort8#aj ,beggarly recognition or base indifference is meted out to the men whose minds have fertilized science in every department4 ,the pulse of every student should beat faster as he reads the story of ,archimedes1 of ,hero1 of ,aristarchus1 names not even mentioned in the ,greats papers in the past decade4 ,yet the methods of these men exorcised vagaries and superstitions from the human mind and pointed to a clear knowledge of the laws of nature4 ,it is surprising that some wag among the examiners has never relieved the grave monotony of the papers by such peripatetic questions as ,how long a gnat lives1 ,to how many fathoms' depth the sunlight penetrates the sea1 and ,what an oyster's soul is like--questions which indicate whence the modern ,lucian got his inspiration to chaff so successfully ,boyle and the professors of ,gresham ,college4 #aj ,loeb ,series4 ,may ,i dwell upon two instances of shocking neglect8 ,it really is amusing in ,oxford to assert neglect of the measurer of all ,art and ,science1 whose is all that is best in the passing sublunary world1 as ,richard de ,bury calls the ,prince of the ,schooles4 ,in ,gulliver's voyage to ,laputa he paid a visit to the little island of ,glubbdubdrib1 whose ,governor1 you remember1 had an ,endorian command over the spirits1 such as ,sir ,oliver ,lodge or ,sir ,arthur ,conan ,doyle might envy4 ,when ,aristotle and his commentators were summoned1 to ,gulliver's surprise they were strangers1 for the reason that having so horribly misrepresented ,aristotle's meaning to posterity1 a consciousness of guilt and shame kept them far away from him in the lower world4 ,such shame1 ,i fear1 will make the shades of many classical dons of this university seek shelter with the commentators when they realize their neglect of one of the most fruitful of all the activities of the ,master4 ,in biology ,aristotle speaks for the first time the language of modern science1 and indeed he seems to have been first and foremost a biologist1 and his natural history studies influenced profoundly his sociology1 his psychology1 and his philosophy in general4 ,the beginner may be sent now to ,professor ,d',arcy ,wentworth ,thompson's ,herbert ,spencer ,lecture1 #aiac1 and he must be indeed a dull and muddy-mettled rascal whose imagination is not fired by the enthusiastic--yet true--picture of the founder of modern biology1 whose language is our language1 whose methods and problems are our own1 the man who knew a thousand varied forms of life1--of plant1 of bird1 and animal1--their outward structure1 their metamorphosis1 their early development2 who studied the problems of heredity1 of sex1 of nutrition1 of growth1 of adaptation1 and of the struggle for existence4#aa ,and the senior student1 if capable of appreciating a biological discovery1 ,i advise to study the account by ,johannes ,mller#ab 7himself a pioneer in anatomy7 of his rediscovery of ,aristotle's remarkable discovery of a special mode of reproduction in one of the species of sharks4 ,for two thousand years the founder of the science of embryology had neither rival nor worthy follower4 ,there is no reference1 ,i believe1 to the biological works in the ,liter ,humaniores papers for the past ten years1 yet they form the very foundations of discoveries that have turned our philosophies topsy-turvy4 #aa ,summarized from ,d',arcy ,wentworth ,thompson4 #ab ,ueber den ,glatten ,hai des ,aristotles4 7,berlin1 #ahdb47 ,nothing reveals the unfortunate break in ,humanities more clearly than the treatment of the greatest nature-poet in literature1 a man who had gazed on ,nature's naked loveliness unabashed1 the man who united1 as no one else has ever done1 the functions and temper and achievement of science and poetry 7,herford74 ,the golden work of ,lucretius is indeed recognized1 and in ,honour ,moderations1 ,books ,i to ,,iii and ,v are set as one of seven alternatives in section ,d2 and scattered through the ,greats papers are set translations and snippets here and there2 but anything like adequate consideration from the scientific side is to be sought in vain4 ,unmatched among the ancients or moderns is the vision by ,lucretius of continuity in the workings of ,nature--not less of le silence ternel de ces espaces infinis which so affrighted ,pascal1 than of the long1 limitless age of days1 the age of all time that has gone by-- 444 longa diei infinita tas anteacti temporis omnis4 ,and it is in a ,latin poet that we find up-to-date views of the origin of the world and of the origin of man4 ,the description of the wild discordant storm of atoms 7,book ,v7 which led to the birth of the world might be transferred verbatim to the accounts of ,poincar or of ,arrhenius of the growth of new celestial bodies in the ,milky ,way4 ,what an insight into primitive man and the beginnings of civilization6 ,he might have been a contemporary and friend1 and doubtless was a tutor1 of ,tylor4 ,book ,,ii1 a manual of atomic physics with its marvellous conception of 444 the flaring atom streams ,and torrents of her myriad universe1 can only be read appreciatively by pupils of ,roentgen or of ,j4 ,j4 ,thomson4 ,the ring theory of magnetism advanced in ,book ,,vi has been reproduced of late by ,parsons1 whose magnetons rotating as rings at high speed have the form and effect with which this disciple of ,democritus clothes his magnetic physics4 ,and may ,i here enter a protest8 ,of love-philtres that produce insanity we may read the truth in a chapter of that most pleasant manual of erotology1 the ,anatomy of ,melancholy4 ,of insanity of any type that leaves a mind capable in lucid intervals of writing such verses as ,de ,rerum ,natura we know nothing4 ,the sole value of the myth is its causal association with the poem of ,tennyson4 ,only exsuccous dons who have never known the wiles and ways of the younger ,aphrodite would take the intensity of the feeling in ,book ,,iv as witness to anything but an accident which may happen to the wisest of the wise1 when enthralled by ,vivien or some dark lady of the ,sonnets6 ,in the ,school of ,liter ,humaniores the studies are based on classical literature and on history1 but a large number of students approach philosophical study from other sides4 ,students of such subjects as mathematics1 natural science1 history1 psychology1 anthropology1 or political economy become naturally interested in philosophy1 and their needs are at present very imperfectly provided for in this university4 ,this ,i quote from a ,report to the ,board of the ,faculty of ,arts made just before the war on a proposed new ,honour ,school1 the subject of which should be the principles of philosophy considered in their relation to the sciences4 ,that joint action of this kind should have been taken by the ,boards of ,arts and of ,science indicates a widespread conviction that no man is cultivated up to the standard of his generation who has not an appreciation of how the greatest achievements of the human mind have been reached2 and the practical question is how to introduce such studies into the course of liberal education1 how to give the science school the leaven of an old philosophy1 how to leaven the old philosophical school with the thoughts of science4#ac #ac ,since ,i wrote this lecture1 ,professor ,j4 ,a4 ,stewart has sent me his just-published essay on ,oxford after the ,war and a ,liberal ,education1 in which he urges with all the weight of his learning and experience that the foundations of liberal education in ,oxford should be ,no ,humane ,letters without ,natural ,science and no ,natural ,science without ,humane ,letters4 ,it is important to recognize that there is nothing mysterious in the method of science1 or apart from the ordinary routine of life4 ,science has been defined as the habit or faculty of observation4 ,by such the child grows in knowledge1 and in its daily exercise an adult lives and moves4 ,only a quantitative difference makes observation scientific--accuracy2 in that way alone do we discover things as they really are4 ,this is the essence of ,plato's definition of science as the discovery of things as they really are1 whether in the heavens above1 in the earth beneath1 or in the observer himself4 ,as a mental operation1 the scientific method is equally applicable to deciphering a bit of ,beneventan script1 to the analysis of the evidence of the ,commission on ,coal-,mines1 a study of the mechanism of the nose-dive1 or of the colour-scheme in tiger-beetles4 ,to observation and reasoned thought1 the ,greek added experiment1 but never fully used it in biology1 an instrument which has made science productive1 and to which the modern world owes its civilization4 ,our every-day existence depends on the practical application of discoveries in pure science by men who had no other motives than a search for knowledge of ,nature's laws1 a disinterestedness which ,burnet claims to be the distinctive gift of ,hellas to humanity4 ,with the discovery of induced currents ,faraday had no thought of the dynamo4 ,crookes's tubes were a plaything until ,roentgen turned them into practical use with the ,x-rays4 ,perkin had no thought of transforming chemical industry when he discovered aniline dyes4 ,priestley would have cursed the observation that an electrical charge produced nitrous acid had he foreseen that it would enable ,germany to prolong the war1 but he would have blessed the thought that it may make us independent of all outside sources for fertilizers4 ,the extraordinary development of modern science may be her undoing4 ,specialism1 now a necessity1 has fragmented the specialities themselves in a way that makes the outlook hazardous4 ,the workers lose all sense of proportion in a maze of minuti4 ,everywhere men are in small coteries intensely absorbed in subjects of deep interest1 but of very limited scope4 ,chemistry1 a century ago an appanage of the ,chair of ,medicine or even of ,divinity1 has now a dozen departments1 each with its laboratory and literature1 sometimes its own society4 ,applying themselves early to research1 young men get into backwaters far from the main stream4 ,they quickly lose the sense of proportion1 become hypercritical1 and the smaller the field1 the greater the tendency to megalocephaly4 ,the study for fourteen years of the variations in the colour-scheme of the thirteen hundred species of tiger-beetles scattered over the earth may sterilize a man into a sticker of pins and a paster of labels2 on the other hand1 he may be a modern biologist whose interest is in the experimental modification of types1 and in the mysterious insulation of hereditary characters from the environment4 ,only in one direction does the modern specialist acknowledge his debt to the dead languages4 ,men of science pay homage1 as do no others1 to the god of words whose magic power is nowhere so manifest as in the plastic language of ,greece4 ,the only visit many students pay to ,parnassus is to get an intelligible label for a fact or form newly discovered4 ,turn the pages of such a dictionary of chemical terms as ,morley and ,muir1 and you meet in close-set columns countless names unknown a decade ago1 and unintelligible to the specialist in another department unless familiar with ,greek1 and as meaningless as the ,arabic jargon in such medival collections as the ,synonyma of ,simon ,januensis or the ,pandects of ,matheas ,sylvaticus4 ,as ,punch put it the other day in a delightful poetical review of ,professor ,west's volume3#ad ,botany relies on ,latin ever since ,linnus' days2 ,biologic nomenclature draws on ,greek in countless ways2 ,while in ,medicine it is obvious you can never take your oath ,what an ailment means exactly if you haven't studied both4 #ad ,the ,value of the ,classics4 ,princeton ,university ,press1 #aiag4 ,let me give a couple of examples4 ,within the narrow compass of the primitive cell from which all living beings originate1 onomatomania runs riot4 ,the process of mitosis has developed a special literature and language4 ,dealing not alone with the problems of heredity and of sex1 but with the very dynamics of life1 the mitotic complex is much more than a simple physiological process1 and in the action and interaction of physical forces the cytologist hopes to find the key to the secret of life itself4 ,and what a ,grecian he has become6 ,listen to this account1 which ,aristotle would understand much better than most of us4 ,the karyogranulomes1 not the idiogranulomes or microsomenstratum in the protoplasm of the spermatogonia1 unite into the idiosphrosome1 acrosoma of ,lenhossk1 a protean phase1 as the idiosphrosome differentiates into an idiocryptosome and an idiocalyptosome1 both surrounded by the idiosphrotheca1 the archoplasmic vesicle2 but the idioectosome disappears in the metamorphosis of the spermatid into a sphere1 the idiophtharosome4 ,the separation of the calyptosome from the cryptosome antedates the transformation of the idiosphrotheca into the spermiocalyptrotheca4#ae #ae ,of course ,i have made this up out of a recent number of the ,american ,journal of ,anatomy1 #bd1 ,i4 ,or take a more practical if less ,cratylean example4 ,in our precious cabbage-patches the holometabolous insecta are the hosts of parasitic polyembryonic hymenoptera1 upon the prevalence of which rests the psychic and somatic stamina of our fellow countrymen2 for the larv of ,pieris brassic1 vulgarly cabbage butterfly1 are parasitiased by the ,apantales glomeratus1 which in turn has a hyperparasite1 the ,mesochorus pallidus4 ,it is tragic to think that the fate of a plant1 the dietetic and pharmaceutical virtues of which have been so extolled by ,cato1 and upon which two of my ,plinean colleagues of uncertain date1 ,chrysippus and ,dieuches1 wrote monographs--it fills one with terror to think that a crop so dear to ,hodge 7et veris cymata6 the ,brussels sprouts of ,columella7 should depend on the deposition in the ovum of the ,pieris of another polyembryonic egg4 ,the cytoplasm or oplasm of this forms a trophoamnion and develops into a polygerminal mass1 a spherical morula1 from which in turn develop a hundred or more larv1 which immediately proceed to eat up everything in and of the body of their host4 ,only in this way does ,nature preserve the ,selenas1 the ,leas1 and the ,crambes1 so dear to ,cato and so necessary for the sustenance of our hard-working1 brawny-armed ,brasserii4 ,from over-specialization scientific men are in a more parlous state than are the ,humanists from neglect of classical tradition4 ,the salvation of science lies in a recognition of a new philosophy--the scientia scientiarum of which ,plato speaks4 ,now when all these studies reach the point of intercommunion and connection with one another and come to be considered in their mutual affinities1 then1 ,i think1 and not till then1 will the pursuit of them have a value4 ,upon this synthetic process ,i hesitate to dwell2 since1 like ,dr4 ,johnson's friend1 ,oliver ,edwards1 ,i have never succeeded in mastering philosophy--cheerfulness was always breaking in4 ,in the proposed ,honour ,school the principles of philosophy are to be dealt with in relation to the sciences1 and by the introduction of literary and historical studies1 which ,george ,sarton advocates so warmly as the new ,humanism1#af the student will gain a knowledge of the evolution of modern scientific thought4 ,but to limit the history to the modern period--,kepler to the present time is suggested--would be a grave error4 ,the scientific student should go to the sources and in some way be taught the connection of ,democritus with ,dalton1 of ,archimedes with ,kelvin1 of ,aristarchus with ,newton1 of ,galen with ,john ,hunter1 and of ,plato and ,aristotle with them all4 ,and the glories of ,greek science should be opened in a sympathetic way to ,greats men4 ,under new regulations at the public schools1 a boy of sixteen or seventeen should have enough science to appreciate the position of ,theophrastus in botany1 and perhaps himself construct ,hero's fountain4 ,science will take a totally different position in this country when the knowledge of its advances is the possession of all educated men4 ,the time1 too1 is ripe for the ,bodleian to become a studium generale1 with ten or more departments1 each in charge of a special sub-librarian4 ,when the beautiful rooms1 over the portals of which are the mocking blue and gold inscriptions1 are once more alive with students1 the task of teaching subjects on historical lines will be greatly lightened4 ,what has been done with the ,music-,room1 and with the ,science-,room through the liberality of ,dr4 and ,mrs4 ,singer1 should be done for classics1 history1 literature1 theology1 etc41 each section in charge of a sub-librarian who will be ,doctor perplexorum alike to professor1 don1 and undergraduate4 #af ,popular ,science ,monthly1 ,september1 #aiah1 and ,scientia1 ,,xxiii1 #c4 ,i wish time had permitted me to sketch even briefly the story of the evolution of science in this old seat of learning4 ,a fortunate opportunity enables you to see two phases in its evolution4 ,through the kind permission of several of the colleges1 particularly ,christ ,church1 ,merton1 ,st4 ,john's1 and ,oriel1 and with the coperation of the ,curators of the ,bodleian and ,dr4 ,cowley1 ,mr4 ,r4 ,t4 ,gunther1 of ,magdalen ,college1 has arranged a loan exhibition of the early scientific instruments and manuscripts4 ,a series of quadrants and astrolabes show how ,arabian instruments1 themselves retaining much of the older ,greek models1 have translated ,alexandrian science into the ,western world4 ,some were constructed for the latitude of ,oxford1 and one was associated with our astronomer-poet ,chaucer4 ,for the first time the instruments and works of the early members of the ,merton ,school of astronomer-physicians have been brought together4 ,they belong to a group of men of the fourteenth century--,reed1 ,aschenden1 ,simon ,bredon1 ,merle1 ,richard of ,wallingford1 and others--whose labours made ,oxford the leading scientific university of the world4 ,little remains of the scientific apparatus of the early period of the ,royal ,society1 but through the kindness of the ,dean and ,governing ,body of ,christ ,church1 the entire contents of the cabinet of philosophical apparatus of the ,earl of ,orrery1 who flourished some thirty years after the foundation of the ,society1 is on exhibit1 and the actual astronomical model1 the ,orrery1 made for him and called after his name4#ag #ag ,among other notable exhibits there are3 #a4 ,a series of astronomical volvelles in manuscripts and printed books4 #b4 ,the printed evidence that ,leonard ,digges of ,university ,college was the inventor of the telescope many years before ,galileo4 #c4 ,the mathematical work of ,robert ,recorde of ,all ,souls' ,college1 in which he suggested the ,st4 ,andrew's ,cross as the sign of multiplication1 and uses symbols 1 -1 4 #d4 ,the earliest known slide-rule in a circular form1 recently discovered in ,st4 ,john's ,college4 #e4 ,the early vellum and wooden telescopes of the ,orrery ,collection4 #f4 ,an original ,marshall microscope4 #g4 ,early surveying instruments1 including the great quadrate of ,schissler4 ,the story of the free cities of ,greece shows how a love of the higher and brighter things in life may thrive in a democracy4 ,whether such love may develop in a civilization based on a philosophy of force is the present problem of the ,western world4 ,to-day there are doubts1 even thoughts of despair1 but neither man nor nation is to be judged by the behaviour in a paroxysm of delirium4 ,lavoisier perished in the ,revolution1 and the ,archbishop of ,paris was butchered at the altar by the ,commune1 yet ,france was not wrecked2 and ,russia may survive the starvation of such scholars as ,danielevski and ,smirnov1 and the massacre of ,botkin4 ,to have intelligent freemen of the ,greek type with a stake in the ,state 7not mere chattels from whose daily life the shadow of the workhouse never lifts71 to have the men and women who could love the light put in surroundings in which the light may reach them1 to encourage in all a sense of brotherhood reaching the standard of the ,good ,samaritan--surely the realization in a democracy of such reasonable ambitions should be compatible with the control by science of the forces of nature for the common good1 and a love of all that is best in religion1 in art1 and in literature4 ,amid the smoke and squalor of a modern industrial city1 after the bread-and-butter struggle of the day1 the ,discobolus has no gospel4 ,our puritanized culture has been known to call the ,antinous vulgar4 ,copies of these two statues1 you may remember1 ,samuel ,butler found stored away in the lumber-room of the ,natural ,history ,museum1 ,montreal1 with skins1 plants1 snakes1 and insects1 and in their midst1 stuffing an owl1 sat the brother-in-law of the haberdasher of ,mr4 ,spurgeon4 ,against the old man who thus blasphemed beauty1 ,butler broke into those memorable verses with the refrain ,o ,god6 ,o ,montreal6 ,let us not be discouraged4 ,the direction of our vision is everything1 and after weltering four years in chaos poor stricken humanity still nurses the unconquerable hope of an ideal state whose citizens are happy 444 absolutely wise1 all of them brave1 just1 and self-controlled 444 all at peace and unity and in the enjoyment of legality1 equality1 liberty1 and all other good things4 ,lucian's winning picture of this ,universal ,happiness might have been sketched by a ,round ,table pen or some youthful secretary to the ,league of ,nations4 ,that such hope persists is a witness to the power of ideals to captivate the mind and the reality may be nearer than any of us dare dream4 ,if survived1 a terrible infection1 such as confluent smallpox1 seems to benefit the general health4 ,perhaps such an attack through which we have passed may benefit the body cosmic4 ,after discussing the various forms of government1 ,plato concludes that ,states are as the men are1 they grow out of human characters1#ah and then1 as the dream-republic approached completion1 he realized that after all the true ,state is within1 of which each one of us is the founder1 and patterned on an ideal the existence of which matters not a whit4 ,is not the need of this individual reconstruction the ,greek message to modern democracy8 ,and with it is blended the note of individual service to the community on which ,professor ,gilbert ,murray has so wisely dwelt4 #ah ,republic1 ,book ,,viii4 ,with the hot blasts of hate still on our cheeks1 it may seem a mockery to speak of this as the saving asset in our future2 but is it not the very marrow of the teaching in which we have been brought up8 ,at last the gospel of the right to live1 and the right to live healthy1 happy lives1 has sunk deep into the hearts of the people2 and before the war1 so great was the work of science in preventing untimely death that the day of ,isaiah seemed at hand1 when a man's life should be more precious than fine gold1 even a man than the golden wedge of ,ophir4 ,there is a sentence in the writings of the ,father of ,medicine upon which all commentators have lingered1 ,greek3 n gar par philanthrpi1 paresti kai philotechni#ai--the love of humanity associated with the love of his craft6--philanthropia and philotechnia--the joy of working joined in each one to a true love of his brother4 ,memorable sentence indeed6 in which for the first time was coined the magic word philanthropy1 and conveying the subtle suggestion that perhaps in this combination the longings of humanity may find their solution1 and ,wisdom--,philosophia--at last be justified of her children4 #ai oeuvres compltes d' ,hippocrates4 ,par ,e4 ,littr1 ,,ix1 #beh4 ,,the ,,end ,the ,riverside ,press ,,cambridge 4 ,,massachusetts ,u 4 ,s 4 ,a ,transcriber ,notes3 ,passages in italics were indicated by underscores4 ,small caps were replaced with ,,all ,,caps4 ,throughout the document1 the oe ligature was replaced with ,,oe4 ,errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted4 ,footnotes were moved to after the paragraph they were referenced in4 ,on page #bf1 the second open parenthesis was replaced with a closed parenthesis4