the President's address. 69 



opinion such as that fostered by the average theorist. One who 

 has taken up an hypothesis as an article of faith, and prosecutes it 

 with all the zeal of a political creed, would either make a proselyte, 

 or sacrifice a friend. As community of feeling, taste, and pursuits 

 all serve to cement friendship, so will their opposites speedily dis- 

 solve the bond. 



VII., and lastly — to come back to the topic which has been 

 before us — because it leads to exaggeration, and especially lends 

 itself to it at a period when exaggeration is the fashion of the age. 

 It is no answer to say that a sound hypothesis does not need to 

 support itself by exaggeration ; it is sufficient to show, that, apart 

 from all inducements towards wilful exaggeration, there is a 

 natural tendency to suppression on the one hand, and undue 

 extenuation on the other. Where the fundamental facts are not 

 universally known, and, indeed, can only be known by experience 

 to a few, there is a continual temptation in the direction of 

 exaggeration, on the principle that the end will justify the means, 

 and that a polemic victory, will cover a multitude of sins. One 

 has only to turn to any of the records of recent controverted 

 hypotheses, and exercise the judgment of an " outsider'' to obtain 

 abundant evidence that exaggeration is resorted to, as a matter of 

 course, and unblushingly, as if it were a virtue. Something of 

 this may be due to the " fashion," and therefore impresses more 

 forcibly those who can compare it with the past, than it does 

 those younger men who have grown with the fashion. At any 

 rate, it is worthy of note that those who are not drawn into the 

 whirlpool of these extravagant hypotheses are chiefly men of ripe 

 years, who contemplate with surprise the large amount of noise 

 that proceeds from very shallow streams. 



Perhaps I shall be met with the remark that all these seven 

 reasons are exaggerations, insomuch as they exaggerate the 

 dangers of adopting an hypothesis, pure and simple, whereas I 

 have in view only hypothetical propagandism, the dangers of which 

 it would be difficult to exaggerate. 



These reasons are given as the result, not of mere speculation, 

 but as forced upon me by experience. Several times it has been 

 my ill-fortune to oppose hypotheses, and this I have always done 

 with regret. It is not in human nature to suffer in patience when 

 vanity is rebuked. Your " candid friend " is not the most agree- 

 able companion. He who would oppose those who have espoused 



