The Old Humanities and the New Science
The Old Humanities and the New Science is the only paper of Osler that really has Humanities in the topic, but all of those who have read Osler know that almost all of his presentations and books included mention of the humanities. Osler exhibited humanness in his life and works and in as many situations as he thought necessary drew upon his classical education. When he gave his presidential address to The Classical Association of Great Britain at Oxford, 1919, the classicists were having a particularly hard struggle to retain in our academic schools and colleges a proper footing for the ancient languages and learning termed "the humanities." So it is today.
In his introduction Osler said, "I felt to have been sailing under false colours to have even by pen or tongue, suggested the possession or even the traditional small Latin and less Greek. Relieved by the assurance that in alternate years the qualification of your President was an interest in education and literature, I gladly accepted, not however, without such anticipatory qualms as afflict an amateur at the thought of addressing a body of experts. Not an educated man in the Oxford sense, yet faint memories of the classics linger--the result of ten years of such study as lads of my generation pursued, memories best expressed in Tom Hood's lines, 'The weary tasks I used to con!, The hopeless leaves I wept upon!, Most fruitless leaves to met'"
He lauds the importance of the humanities, "In a life of teaching and practice, a mere picker-up of learning's crumbs is made to realize the value of the humanities in science not less than general culture." It is from our grasp and application of the humanities that we become truly civilized.
Osler spoke of war for all time. "When the wild beast of Plato's dream becomes a waking reality, and a herd-emotion of hate sweeps a nation off its feet, the desolation
