Page:Lectures on Ten British Physicists of the Nineteenth Century.djvu/37

 enables them to overcome obstacles, often prevents their being quickly set in motion. His kindness, shown in the readiness with which he undertook to read proof sheets for a friend, or even to contribute a portion of a chapter (when the subject was one to which he had paid special attention) was, for a man so constantly at work, absolutely astonishing."

It is customary in the Scottish Universities for a new professor to deliver an inaugural lecture on some subject of general interest connected with his chair; and at that time the discourse was in the Latin language. Professor Rankine chose for his subject "De concordia inter scientiarum machinalium contemplationem et usum"; or the concord in the mechanical sciences between theory and practice; it is printed as a preliminary dissertation in his Manual of Applied Mechanics. In it he traces from ancient down to medieval times the course of the fallacy that there is a double system of natural laws, one theoretical, geometrical, rational, discoverable by contemplation, applicable to celestial ethereal indestructible bodies, and a fit object for the noble and liberal arts; the other system practical, mechanical, empirical, discoverable by experience, applicable to terrestrial gross destructible bodies, and fit only for what were once called the vulgar and sordid arts. And he showed that this fallacy, although no longer formally maintained, still exerted an influence. In reference to this, Professor Greenhill has observed "Although the double system of natural laws mentioned by Rankine is now exploded, we still have a double system of instruction in mechanical textbooks, one theoretical, general, rational; the other practical, empirical, discoverable by experience. It should be the object of modern science to break down the barriers between these two systems, and to treat the subject of mechanics from one point of view."

Appointed to the chair of engineering, Rankine was soon the recipient of many honors. He was made president of the section of engineering, when the British Association met in Glasgow; and the following year, on the occasion of their meeting in Dublin, he received from the University of Dublin the honorary degree of LL.D. The following year he was chosen