Page:Nature and Man.djvu/8

Rh it should be, in fact, the guide of state-government and the trusted basis of the development of human communities. That it is not so already, that men should still allow their energies to run in other directions, appears to some of us a thing so monstrous, so injurious to the prosperity, of our fellow men, that we must do what lies within our power to draw attention to the conditions and circumstances which attend this neglect, the evils arising from it, and the benefits which must follow from its abatement.

It is not unfitting that a son of Oxford should in the fullness of time place before his Alma Mater conclusions which he has formed on a matter of serious and far-reaching importance. Oxford has been said to be the home of lost causes. It is true that her hospitality and benevolence are such that she is the home both of causes which triumph and of causes which are defeated; but it may be more aptly said that it is her splendid distinction, when corrupting greed and glorified ignorance are so largely dominant in the national life, still to be the birth-place of high aspirations, still the shelter and sanctuary of noble ideals. I therefore, with confidence in the generosity of my audience, venture to lay before you what I have to say.

The signification attached to the word 'Nature' is by no means the same at the present day as it has been in the past: as commonly used it is a word of varied meanings and limitations, so that misconception and confusion is liable to be associated with it. By the professed student of modern sciences it is usually understood as a name for the entire mechanism of