[00:13.61]I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and appreciative manner in which you have received the toast of Science.
[00:21.18]It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind,
[00:26.72]because I have noticed of late years a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly
[00:32.87]said to have been born in a pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive force,
[00:40.89]which if it had its own way would oust from the universe all other pursuits.
[00:46.35]I think there are many persons who look upon this new birth of our times
[00:51.19]as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thought with the purpose of devouring the Andromeda of art.
[01:00.13]And now and then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer,
[01:05.82]with the cap of invisibility of the editorial article, and it may be with the Medusahead of vituperation,
[01:13.75]shows himself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon. Sir, I hope that Perseus will think better of it;
[01:23.56]first, for his own sake, because the creature is hard of head, strong of jaw,
[01:29.30]and for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way;
[01:36.44]and secondly, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own personal knowledge that if left alone,
[01:44.21]the creature is a very debonair and gentle monster. As for the Andromeda of art,
[01:51.32]he has the tenderest respect for that lady, and desires nothing more than to see her happily settled
[01:59.70]and annually producing a flock of such charming children as those we see about us.
[02:04.27]But putting parables aside, I am unable to understand how any one with a knowledge of mankind
[02:11.50]can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any of its forms.
[02:19.84]If I understand the matter at all, science and art are the obverse and reverse of Nature’s medal;
[02:25.76]the one expressing the external order of things, in terms of feeling, the other in terms of thought.
[02:33.28]When men no longer love nor hate; when suffering causes no pity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill,
[02:42.26]when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed than Solomon in all his glory,
[02:48.82]and the awe has vanished from the snow-capped peak and deep ravine,
[02:53.55]then indeed science may have the world to itself, but it will not be because the monster has devoured the art,
[03:01.80]but because one side of human nature is dead,
[03:05.25]and because men have lost the half of their ancient and present attributes.
