120 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



A PLEA FOR GREATER ATTENTION TO THE SCIENCES. 



BY THE CHURCHES, BY THE SCHOOLS, BY LEGISLATURES, AND BY 



THE PEOPLE GENERALLY. 



(Presidential Address, to the Michigan Academy of Science, Ypsilanti, March 30, 1899.) 



BY HENRY B. BAKER, A. M., M. D., PRESIDENT. 



Members of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen: — As the minister of the 

 gospel endeavors to propagate emotions and desires toward a forsaking 

 of sins, and toward right conduct in every relation of man to man and 

 of man to his Creator, so my present aim is to propagate emotions and 

 desires toward a forsaking of imperfect methods of action, in the 

 churches, in the schools, and in the halls of legislation; and to plead for 

 a new life, more in harmony with divine laws. 



If, as most of us believe, there is an infinite God, who is omnipotent, 

 omnipresent, the creator of all things, and ruler of the universe, then not 

 only all the laws which govern in the spiritual realms, but also all which 

 govern in the material universe, are Divine laws; disobedience of which 

 incurs penalties, knowledge of which will enable us to act in harmony 

 therewith, and complete, exact knowledge would give mankind almost 

 infinite control over our surroundings. 



I plead for an extension of the emotions and desires of mankind so as 

 to include a desire for right relations not only to our brethren and to the 

 Creator of the universe, but also to every created thing with which man 

 comes into relation. 



THE CHURCHES. 



Let us grant that the main function of the church has been to stimulate 

 emotion toward right conduct; what does that avail if ignorance of what 

 conduct is right continues to prevail? The contrite heart, the earnest 

 prayer to be saved from sin, ought to lead to a knowledge of how to be 

 saved from sin; because if it does not lead to that knowledge, sin is yet 

 likely to follow. It has been customary for mankind to plead innocence 

 of sin when the sin has been involuntary and without knowledge; but 

 it must be apparent to every thoughtful person that, with the laws of 

 God as with the laws of man, every person is supposed to know the laws, 

 and to obey them or suffer the penalities; and the penalties are much 

 more certain to follow violations of the laws of the Creator than viola- 

 tions of the laws of man. Under all ordinary conditions, if a person puts a 

 finger in the fire it is burned. All such common laws of the Creator are 

 easily learned, but common business honesty is not easily learned except 

 in the school of actual business life, or by special training in social 

 science. 



Under the present complex conditions of labor and society, the proper 

 relations of man to man can be learned only by hard study, under the 

 leadership of masters in social science. We have ministers of the ancient 



