A MEMORABLE ADDRESS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1889, 25 October 1913, Page 4

A MEMORABLE ADDRESS.

"It is my function to remind you and myself that our studies do not exhaust the universe, and if wo dogmatise in a negative direction, and say that we can reduce everything to physics and chomistry. wo gibbet ourselves as ludicrously narrow pedants, and are falling far short of the richness and fullness of our human birthright." These striking words, uttered by Sir Oliver Lodge, one-of the world's greatest scientists, from the presidential chair of the British Association, may be taken as a very impressive indication of the great change which has come over the temper of modern scientific thought in retent years. The papers which arrived by the latest English mail give a great deal of space to the address, and the fuller reports more than fulfil tho high expectations aroused by tho brief cable summary which we published at the time of its delivery. It is bound to occupy a prominent place in the great series of scientific pronouncements which have been made by the distinguished men whoso names form tho roll of presidents of tie British Association. The Times deolares that "it Is a notable utterance, worthy to rank with the very best of its predecessors.". It gainß in human interest by reason of tho fact that Sir Oliver Lodge is much more than a scientist in the narrower sense of the term. Ho takes a keen interest in tho cvar-present problems of life and death, and in the thought and aotion of the great world which lives and moves outside the walls of the study and the laboratory. This broader outlook permeates the whole address ( and flashes to the surface'from time to time even in the more abstruse and technical portion of tho argument. Sir Oliver Lodge will not _ allow himsolf to be fettered by scientific tradition, and is prepared to follow truth wherever it may lead. His whole attitude is an illustration of the new spirit which has como over the scene, The overbearing tone of dogmatism which characterised so many of the declarations made in the name of science during tho latter half of the Nineteenth Century, has now given place to a more reasonable and tolerant frame of mind among men of the front rank, aiid only survives in the ranks of the camp followers, some of whom are still unwilling to admit the manifest limitations oi the methods of physical science.

Though Sin Oliver Lodge reminds his fellow-workers that tho universe is a larger thing than they have any oonccption of, and that no one method of search will exhaust its treasures, yet he fully recognises . that science is justified in the employment of its own methods, and that-"an appeal to occult qualities must be illegitimate ana a barrier to experiment and research generally." Materialism, he states, is appropriate to the material world; not ns a philosophy, but as a working creed. But the material world does not comprise the whole of things. There are regions beyond which must be reached by other methods, and it is impossible to explain tho psychical in terms of physics and chemistry. In a striking illustration of this point ho remarks that the behaviour of a ship firing shot and shell is explicable in terms of energy; but the discrimination which it exercises between friend and foe requires some other method of explanation. "Life introduces something incalculable and purposeful amid the laws of physios; it thus distinctly aupplo-

ments those laws, though it leaves them otherwise precisely as they were and obeys them all." The universe is a wonderfully complex and mysterious thing, and the knowledge that, m spite of all our boasted discoveries, we know extremely little about it teaches humility to the wisest men. Scientific men are not infallible; indeed, as Dn. Jowett, the famous Master of Balliol, once stated, "None of us is infallible, not oven tho youngest." Arrogance is quite as unbecoming in a scientist as in anyone else, and no one need regret the passing away of the old tendency to dogmatically reject facts and theories which decline to fit in with the orthodox system of thought of a particular generation. A thing which is not explicable is not necessarily _ superstitious, and if knowledge is to increase it is necessary that our leaders of thought should always maintain an open mind prepared to welcome new light from whatever quarter it may come. The orthodox scientist of the Old School cannot shake off his dislike of what is known as psychical research, and this prejudice has not yet been entirely dispelled; but Sir Oliver certainly has reason on his side when he claims the right to investigate the mysterious depths of human personality. With Me. Balfour, M. Beeqson, and other distinguished thinkers, lie- asks to be given a fair field. He puts the position quite unassailablv when he says: "Let those who preier the materialistic hypothesis by all means develop their thesis as far as they can; but let us try what wo can do in the psychical region and sec which wins." This is a fair challenge, and, unless, science is going to lose that spirit of freedom and vitality which has achieved such great things in recent times, it must not ba "completely bound by the shackles of pre-sent-day orthodoxy., nor limited to beliefs fashionable at the time." The generation in which wa live is becoming more and moro deeply impressed with tho fact that some of the greatest things in the world can nover be weighca and measured by any instruments whieh physical science can construct, and that it is sheer obscurantism to contend that other methods "of exploring tho multifarious depths of the universe" arc worthless and mistaken. Tlie saint, and the prophet, and the poet can illuminate regions on which the scientist can throw no light. Within a restricted sphero tho laws of chemistry and physics are, as Sir Oliver Lodge points out, undoubtedly supremo, and they account for things up to a point. "They account in part for the colour of a sunset, for the majesty of a mountain peak, for tho glory of animate existence. But do tney account for everything completely ? < Do they account for our own feeling of joy and exaltation, for our senso of beauty, for the manifest beauty existing throughout Nature'! Do not these things suggest something higher, and nobler, and more joyous; something for tho sake of which all tho struggle for existence goos on?" Standing in the presonco of that great audience which included many of tho most brilliant intellects in tho world, the President of tho British Association concluded his address with a profession of faith in tho persistence of personality beyond bodily death, and in tho broad truth of religion. It was, to quote the words of The Times, an impressive close to a fine effort, "and one more consonant, we believe, with the present trend of advanced thought than repugnant to it."