THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 231 



and re-examination by disinterested observers of the facts on which 

 the conclusions of those who have committed themselves to a par- 

 ticular view are supposed to be based. Every real worker longs 

 for the thorough re-investigation of what he has done, for he re- 

 pudiates the dictates of authority, and the support of parties, 

 whether urged in his favour or with the object of correcting him. 

 He disclaims being an authority, and refuses to submit to a scien- 

 tific dictatorship of any kind, however absolute, potent, and uncom- 

 promising may be the power conferred by the accident of circum- 

 stance or by the influence of an infallible conclave. Is it likely 

 that an intellectual tyranny will be less hostile to human progress 

 than any other form of tyranny to which man has been forced to 

 submit by his would-be benefactors in the times that have past ? 

 The dogma of evolution may be proclaimed infallible by those who 

 have faith in it, as the only true hypothesis, and the only one fitted 

 to survive ; but, alas, in defiance of all laws known or licensed to 

 be discovered, new hypotheses will appear, and by natural selection 

 may gradually accumulate advantages which will at length enable 

 them to compete successfully in the struggle for existence. It 

 will, therefore, be prudent to strangle all new hypotheses at the 

 birth, unless it be possible very soon to discover means by which 

 the external conditions of existence may be so modified as to render 

 impossible the collocations of atoms and molecules from which 

 their forces and their characters are derived. 



