IN writing a prefatory note to an American reprint of this notable
address there are three things to consider--the writer, his subject, and
the occasion. The greatly beloved author had a multitude of friends in
all lands, and far abler pens have written much concerning him during
the past twelve months. The subject is one of no less moment on this
side of the Atlantic than to those in older countries who concern
themselves with scholarship and education, though here the classicists
are having a particularly hard struggle to retain in our academies,
schools, and colleges a proper footing for the ancient languages and
learning termed "the humanities." The circumstances under which the
address was given are less familiar in this country than the author and
his subject, for we as yet have no corresponding organization, or at
least none with such an ambitious programme. Consequently it is
appropriate that this note should dwell chiefly upon the occasion.
The Classical Association, composed of a large body of university men,
teachers, and schoolmasters, with local branches in several places in
Great Britain and her colonies, was established in 1904 with this
object:
To promote the development and maintain the well-being of
classical studies and in particular:
(a) To impress upon public opinion the claim of such studies to
an eminent place in the national scheme of education;
(b) To improve the practice of classical teaching by free
discussion of its scope and methods;
(c) To encourage investigation and call attention to new
discoveries;
(d) To create opportunities for friendly intercourse and
co-operation among all lovers of classical learning in this
country.
That Sir William Osler should have been chosen to preside over such an
assembly of British scholars is no matter for surprise, for though a
humanist in the broad sense of the term as a student of human affairs
and human nature, rather than of Latin and Greek, he at the same time
was a wide reader with a "relish for knowledge," successful not only in
its quest in many fields beyond that of his chosen profession, but
particularly so in his ability to hand his literary gleanings on to
others in a new and attractive form. Nevertheless, the presidency of the
Classical Association, considering the avowed objects of this body, was
a most signal honour in view of his reputation primarily as a scientist
and teacher of medicine.
His immediate predecessor, the Professor of Greek at Christ Church,
opened his presidential address of the year before with these words:
It is the general custom of this Association to choose as its
President alternately a classical scholar and a man of wide
eminence outside the classics. Next year you are to have a man
of science, a great physician who is also famous in the world of
learning and literature. Last year you had a statesman, who,
though a statesman, is also a great scholar and man of letters,
a sage and counsellor in the antique mould, of world-wide fame
and unique influence.
Thus, though in himself sufficiently representative of humanistic
culture, Osler was in this strict sense an alternate, and among the
fourteen earlier Presidents of the Association three had like himself
been Fellows of the Royal Society, which long since had abandoned even
the pretence of concerning itself with classical studies which had been
the very basis of the Revival of Learning.
The list of Presidents since the foundation of the Association may be a
matter of interest to those in this country who may not have been aware
of the existence and purposes of this organization of British scholars:
1904. The Right Hon. Sir R. H. Collins, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.,
Master of the Rolls.
1905. The Right Hon. the Earl of Halsbury, D.C.L., F.R.S., Lord
Chancellor.
1906. The Right Hon. Lord Curzon of Kedleston, G.C.S.I.,
G.C.I.E., D.C.L., F.R.S.
1907. S. H. Butcher, Esq., M.P., Litt.D., D.Litt., LL.D.
1908. The Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, M.P., K.C., D.C.L., Prime
Minister.
1909. The Right Hon. the Earl of Cromer, G.C.B., O.M., K.C.S.I.,
LL.D.
1910. Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D.,
President of the Royal Society.
1911. The Right Rev. Edward Lee Hicks, D.D., Lord Bishop of
Lincoln.
1912. The Very Rev. Henry Montagu Butler, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D.,
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
1913. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, K.C.B., D.Litt., F.B.A., Head of
the British Museum.
1914. Professor William Ridgeway, Litt.D., LL.D., Sc.D., F.B.A.,
Disney Professor of Archæology, Cambridge.
1915. Sir W. B. Richmond, K.C.B., R.A., D.C.L.
1916. The Right Hon. Viscount Bryce, O.M., D.C.L., LL.D.,
P.B.A., F.R.S.
1917. Professor Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt., F.B.A.,
F.R.S.L., Christ Church, Oxford.
As reported in the Annual Proceedings of the Association, Professor
Murray at the meeting in 1918, in nominating his successor, spoke of him
as a man, "who is not only one of the most eminent physicians in the
world, but represents in a peculiar way the learned physician who was
one of the marked characters of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and stands for a type of culture which the Classical
Association does not wish to see die out of the world--the culture of a
man who, while devoting himself to his special science, keeps
nevertheless a broad basis of interest in letters of all kinds."
In seconding this proposal, Sir Frederic Kenyon pointed out that it had
come at a very appropriate time in the work of the Association, for:
"During this last year our main activity has been directed towards
getting representatives of Natural Science and of the Humanities to work
together, on the principle that those subjects never should be in
conflict with one another, but merely in friendly competition. Both are
equally essential for a liberal education. It is a continuation and a
symbol of that policy that we should ask Sir William Osler to become our
President, and that he should have accepted cordially and readily, as he
did. He is eminent as a man of science, is President of the
Bibliographical Society, and represents scholarship in medicine in its
best form."
It is quite possible that these last remarks may have suggested to the
succeeding President an appropriate topic for his address, for he told
the writer a few months later that he planned to talk on Science and the
Humanities. He was already turning the matter over in his mind, but
where he found time or inclination to write the address it is difficult
to imagine.
Staggered by the loss of his son, an only child, who had fallen in
action near St. Julien during the Passchendaele battles in September the
year before, his days occupied with a succession of duties in connection
with the war, his household filled as always with friends and visitors
innumerable, and every young American or Canadian in service in England
gravitating there, eager above all things to further the progress of the
elaborate catalogue of his unique and valuable collection of books, he
nevertheless set himself to prepare this, one of his most brilliant and
what proved to be his last formal address.
The meeting of the Association was to be held in Oxford, the bed-rock of
classical learning--the only place, it seems, where the word "humanism"
in its narrow sense still survives in modern university terminology as
that part of the curriculum known as _Litteræ Humaniores_. As was
characteristic of his methods, the mere address itself did not suffice,
but he prepared for the occasion in other ways. Thus he collected from
the various Oxford colleges and placed on exhibition an array of
historical objects illustrating the important part Oxford had once
played in science and natural philosophy in days antedating the Royal
Society which had its seeds of origin there. In addition, and as a
possible offset to this, he exhibited from his own collection of books
those volumes which constituted in their original editions the
outstanding classics in Science and Medicine. A small pamphlet
concerning them reads as follows:
Faced with a bewildering variety and ever-increasing literature,
how is the hard-pressed student to learn--