Chapter I: Introduction

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--

1. The evolution of knowledge in any subject;

2. The life and work of the men who made the original
contributions?

So far as concerns Science and Medicine, an attempt is
made to answer the question by the collection of a
Bibliotheca Prima, examples from which are here shown. The
idea is to have in a comparatively small number of works the
essential literature grouped about the men of the first rank,
arranged in chronological order.

I have put out the _editiones principes_ of twenty of such
works. The fundamental contribution may be represented
by a great Aldine edition, _e.g._ Aristotle, by the brief
communication such as that of Darwin and Wallace in the
Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1858, or by a three-page
pamphlet of Roentgen. From the card lists of Galen, Hippocrates,
Vesalius, and Harvey, those interested will see the aim and
scope of the collection.

The works on exhibition are:

Plato 1513
Hippocrates 1526
Aristotle 1495-98
Theophrastus 1483
Galen 1525
Dioscorides 1499
Celsus 1478
Plotinus 1492
Rhazes 1476
Avicenna 1486 (not ed. pr.)
Averrhoes 1473
Copernicus 1543
Vesalius 1543
Agricola 1556
Gilbert 1600
Bacon 1620
Galileo 1632
Harvey 1628
Descartes 1637
Newton 1687

Though it is hardly pertinent to this introductory note, the temptation is strong to dwell further on the treasures of his library. These mentioned above were but samples from the Bibliotheca Prima, and the superb collection, with copious notes on each separate item, is further subdivided into some seven sections--Bibliotheca Secunda, historica, biographica, literaria, the incunabulas, and so on.

He was for seven years President of the Bibliographical Society and as great a lover of books as of men, but it should be borne in mind that his library was being collected and catalogued, not as a series of treasures by reason of their rarity, but were regarded as instruments for the advancement of knowledge, and with this end in view the collection was bequeathed to McGill University.

By good fortune, letters which give interesting descriptions of the effect of the address have been received from two distinguished members of Sir William's audience, one of them an eminent classical scholar, the other an eminent scientist. Sir Frederic Kenyon writes that:

The delivery of Sir William Osler's address was a very memorable
occasion. As can be seen by those who read it, it was full of
learning, of humour, of feeling, of eloquence, and it contained
suggestions of real weight with regard to the interconnection of
science and the humanities. But it gained much in delivery from
the personality of the speaker. No one could hear it without
being impressed by his width of outlook, by his easy mastery of
great tracts of literature and learning, by his all-embracing
humanity in the widest sense of the term. I hope it made many
students of science anxious to extend their knowledge of
classical literature; I know it made one student of the classics
wish that he had a wider knowledge of natural science. Osler
himself was a well-nigh perfect example of the union of science
and the humanities, which to some of us is the ideal of
educational progress; and his address embodied the whole spirit
of this ideal.

Professor William H. Welch has given the following account:

Most fortunately for me my last visit to the Oslers' in Oxford
happened to be on Friday, May 16, 1919, when Osler delivered his
presidential address before the Classical Association.

Of the many honours which came to Osler few gave him so great
pleasure, as well as surprise, as his election to the presidency
of the British Classical Association. This was a recognition,
not merely of his sympathetic interest in classical studies and
intimate association with classical scholars, but also of his
mastery of certain phases of the subject, especially the
bibliographical and historical sides, and the relation of the
work and thought of classical antiquity to the development of
medicine, science, and culture. There have been physicians,
especially in England, well known for their attainments as
classical scholars, but I am not aware that since Linacre there
has come to a member of the medical profession distinction in
this field comparable to Osler's election to the presidency of
the British Classical Association.

Osler told me that he had never given so much time and thought
to the preparation of an address as he did to this one.
The occasion and the whole setting were to me most interesting
and impressive. At noon the audience of distinguished scholars
and guests assembled in the "Divinity Room," the most
beautiful assembly room in Oxford. At one end of the hall the
Vice-Chancellor of the University presided and halfway down one
of the sides was the high seat of the orator. The distinguished
company, the brightly coloured academic gowns and hoods, the
traditional ceremonies for such an occasion in Oxford, the
figure of Osler himself, the charm and interest of the address
and its cordial appreciation and reception by the audience, all
combined to make a scene of brilliancy and delight which I shall
always carry in my memory.

At the close of the address the vote of thanks was moved by Sir
Herbert Warren, the President of Magdalen College, who described
Osler as the modern Galen, and was seconded by Sir John Barran,
the member of Parliament from Leeds, in felicitous words of
discriminating praise of the President's address. The audience
responded most enthusiastically.

I shall never forget the hour which I spent with Osler just
before the address, in inspecting the wonderful collection of
scientific instruments of historical interest which Mr. Gunther
had assembled at Osler's request from the various colleges at
Oxford, especially from Merton, the old home of science. An
interesting descriptive catalogue of the collection had been
prepared. With what delight Osler showed me and told me the
histories and associations of the astrolabes, armillary spheres,
orreries, telescopes, lenses, microscopes, books, etc., which he
had caused to be gathered together in connection with the
meeting of the Classical Association! You will recognize a
characteristic touch and thought of Osler in arranging for such
an original exhibit to interest a meeting of scholars.

When not long after the address I said good-bye to Osler I
little thought that it was to be our final parting, but I
rejoice to have been with him then and to remember him as I saw
him last on that triumphal day.

Thus, though from first to last his heart was wrapped up in his profession and its science, his mind was open to other things, and his confession that the _Religio Medici_ was the second book he ever purchased and that the particular copy had always remained at his bedside is not without significance. He lived to prove himself, not only a worthy disciple of those scholars of the Renascence who interested themselves in natural philosophy, but also of those who were devotees of the ancient languages and literature. But Sir William Osler was a man first--a physician and scholar afterward; and beneath his high spirits, his love of fun, lay an infinite compassion and tenderness toward his humankind. "Write me as one who loves his fellow-men." And upon few men has such a measure of admiration, affection, and love been bestowed in return. These things he bore without pride, as he bore his great success in life with humility.

On July 12, 1919, less than two months after the address was delivered, he attained his seventieth year, and was presented with two volumes containing sixty-seven original "Contributions to Medical and Biological Research" written in his honour. In addition to this, tributes were showered upon him from all sides, and his work, character, and accomplishments became the subject of papers innumerable. It was an extraordinary outburst, one of those exceptional occurrences when people do not wait for the passing--in this case so near at hand--to say, what is in their hearts to say, of the life of a friend. A brief characterization of him from one of the most eminent of British scholars was quoted early in this note, and it may be fitting to close with some lines by the dean of American classical scholars, Basil L. Gildersleeve, written for what proved to be his last birthday:

ON A PORTRAIT OF SIR WILLIAM
OSLER, BART.

William the Fowler, Guillaume l'Oiseleur!
I love to call him thus, and when I scan
The counterfeit presentment of the man,
I feel his net, I hear his arrows whir.
Make at the homely surname no demur,
Nor on a nomination lay a ban
With which a line of sovran lords began,
Henry the Fowler was first Emperor.
Asclepius was Apollo's chosen son,
But to that son he never lent his bow,
Nor did Hephæstus teach to forge his net;
Both secrets hath Imperial Osler won.
His winged words straight to their quarry go.
All hearts are holden by his meshes yet.
HARVEY CUSHING

_Brookline_
_February 18, 1920_

THE OLD HUMANITIES AND
THE NEW SCIENCE

THE OLD HUMANITIES AND
THE NEW SCIENCE