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confidence how many and what things it was possible to include in a course of school training for the pupils at the stage usually implied in our primary schools."

Then, after referring to the new matters that are being constantly brought forward in connexion with education, and to the question how these are to be overtaken without detriment to subjects already in the field, he went on :

"It is only of late years that even physical dietaries have been arranged upon science principles, for prisoners, for sailors, for soldiers, for paupers, all more or less compulsory, while to the self-governing individual the results have been given as suggestions for voluntary guidance. We are probably still in the same infancy of the human race as regards education dietaries. . The situation at the present day is something especially overpowering to contemplate. The advance of knowledge in every direction, the multiplication of topics in each single department, carried to such a length that even an antediluvian memory would break down under any one-all this leaves possibilities of disproportion, of mistaken choice, and omission of the unquestionably useful; and it becomes an exercise of judgment or prudence of the very highest order to make a suitable selection and adjustment for a very limited amount of time."

He next adverted to a related department where he had striven all his life to achieve something:

"From my very earliest days I have been in the habit of weighing one part of a subject against another,

and one whole subject against its rivals in respect to the number of their fruitful applications. It is not enough to say of this or that department that it is useful; the question is how useful? or, as I might phrase it, how many utilities to the square inch? I have applied this to grammar, to logic, to rhetoric, to psychology, as far as lay in my power."

Later on in his address, he dwelt on the comparative worth of the physical and natural sciences :

"It is at this moment a question with the most zealous and enlightened educationists how to indoctrinate the population at large and not merely the students of professions with certain select branches of physics or natural philosophy as being eminently prolific in their bearings upon the wants of everyday life, from whose consideration none can be exempted. Physics is a vast subject and not in all parts equally applicable in the ways suggested; nevertheless, a happy selection of topics is possible which would cover our most important utilities in personal and household management, and would rank very high under the square inch test."

After considering the relative values of the different branches of physical science, he said of the natural sciences :

"The number of their applications to the square inch, as beside the physical sciences, is scarcely above a cypher."

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Nevertheless :

they are the sciences of world-interest. Their sphere is the cosmos; their object is to unravel the plan of the

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universe. They enable us to go out into the world with arrested gaze and to find materials for solitary cogitation and social interest in a region of things that does little or nothing for physical wants."

He concluded with the following remarks:

"You will now be asking what is the drift of this elaborate attempt to pit against each other the physical and the natural sciences. The only answer is to indicate the choice or preference in the programme of the school with limited time and means. For this purpose you should call things by their right names, and value each subject according to its actual fruits. I presume that stress must first be laid upon the primary utilities, the necessaries of a healthy existence. If these are provided for and space remains, then enter upon the luxurious, the noble, the soul-satisfying in the highest degree. . . I have not yet done full justice to the physical sciences in exclusively confining my remarks to their share in the primary utilities. They too have their sphere in revealing the great laws of the cosmos, the ruling principles of mundane government as exhibited both in the terrestrial and in the celestial regions. These branches already quoted as making the fewest contributions to immediate utility still play a part in the field of the noble. I need only cite the example of astronomy as in itself a vast theme of worldinterest while of comparatively limited practical utility— I mean limited in range, not in importance. The great art of navigation reposes upon only a very small portion of astronomical study; and for the everyday wants and management of life the applications are simply nothing to the square inch. Yet, of all the sciences I have had to study in the course of my life, none has given me a greater degree of intellectual satisfaction

than astronomy. It may well be called the noblest of the sciences."

In July, 1892, at the opening of the Aberdeen Public Library, Dr. Bain was asked to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and, in acknowledging Mr. Carnegie's generosity, he made certain characteristic observations, which were the only parts of his speech that he seemed to remember afterwards :

"We have long had reason to remark the naturally sluggish character of the liberality of the public towards popular instruction by means of such institutions as our Mechanics' Libraries and classes. In almost all ages, churches and almsgiving charities have had the first place in the regard of wealthy donors. Education in every form has lagged behind these two prime objects. The founder of the Alexandrian Library would have appealed in vain to the wealthy traders and landowners of the place for a subscription in aid of that object, but might have got their help for a new temple. Even our universities have experienced only one ready flow of liberality, and that is in their character as public charities."

The interest which, for many years, Dr. Bain had shown first in the Library of the Mechanics' Institution, and afterwards in its successor, the Free Public Library, had aroused a widespread desire in Aberdeen to connect his name in some permanent way with the City Library. In the summer of 1891, he had given sittings, for a

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bust, to Mr. Bain Smith, the sculptor; and a movement, originated by Mr. A. W. Robertson, then the Public Librarian, and by the late Dr. William Alexander, resulted in the purchase of the bust, by a large body of subscribers, for preservation in the Library. The presentation took place on the 26th August, 1892, and, in the course of a reply to a eulogistic speech by his neighbour, Sir William Henderson, Dr. Bain adverted to his work in a wider sphere than that of library management:

"The subjects that I have dealt with are varied and difficult to a degree beyond what any single man ordinarily undertakes. But then, unfortunately, they are of the class of topics that in all ages have divided thinking men, and have not yet reached the point of even partial or moderate agreement. In physical science, in inventions, in the arts, a new idea is at once tested, and, if adopted, is never again forgotten; malignity and impudence are alike impotent to take away the merit of the originators. Even a barbarian inundation could not take back into forgetfulness the law of gravitation. But in the philosophy of the mind the displacement of one system by another is proverbial. All that we count upon, when we have done our best, is that some of our stones may be found to fit into the structures of our successors; and as this much needs time, the consummating of one's reputation is necessarily postponed. Even for the present, I am far from securing unanimity of judgment among those that have taken the trouble to follow me. That I do not complain of; it is not the business of any man to bring round the whole world, or a tenth part of it, to particular conclusions on debated