VII. THE ANATOMY OF SOME SCIENTIFIC IDEAS 134 VIII. SPACE, TIME, AND RELATIVITY 191 (Paper read to Section A at the Manchester Meeting of Section A, 1915; also, with the appended Commentary, read subsequently before the Aristotelian Society.) ORGANISATION OF THOUGHT CHAPTER I THE AIMS OF EDUCATION--A PLEA FOR REFORM (_Presidential Address to the Mathematical Association, January, 1916_) WHEN I had the honour of being made President of the Mathematical Association, I did not foresee the unusual responsibility which it entailed. It was my intention to take as the theme of a presidential address the consideration of some aspect of those special subjects to which my own researches have principally been directed. Events have forced me to abandon that intention. It is useless to discuss abstract questions in the midst of dominant practical preoccupation. We cannot disregard the present crisis in European civilisation. It affects every function of life. In the harder struggle for existence which lies before the nation, all departments of national effort will be reviewed for judgment. The mere necessity for economy in resources will provoke this reformation. We are concerned with education. This Association, so rich in its membership of educationalists, with the conception of reform as the very reason of its being, is among those bodies which must take the lead in guiding that educational reconstruction which by a sociological law follows every social revolution. We do not want impracticable ideals, only to be realised beyond the clouds in "Some wild, weird clime, Out of Space, and out of Time." We require to know what is possible now in England, a nation conscious of its high achievements, and of great failures, shaken to its foundations, distrustful of the old ways, and dreading fantastic novelties. I will take my courage in both hands, and put before you an outline of educational principles. What I am going to say is of course entirely without your authority, and does not pledge or prejudge any action of the Association. We are primarily concerned only with the intellectual side of education, and, as mathematicians, are naturally concerned to illustrate details more particularly by reference to mathematics. Thus much to explain deliberate omissions in what follows.