THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 89 



to liave resulted fmni their use. or, rather their misuse, as the basis 

 of procedure, Init that has been the shining light that has inevitably- 

 led onward into new and undiscovered countries of human knowledge 

 and human achievement. All the sciences, as embodiments of human 

 wisdom, are alike in this, whether their direct application be to the 

 practical things of life, or whether they be applied indirectly toward 

 a clarification of the conception of the infinite causes that underlie 

 them as facts of finite existence. They all owe their origin and 

 their development to a search for the truth, and their further develop- 

 ment is as dependable upon it. For who shall say in the case of a 

 single science that we have arrived at the ultimate end of the truth 

 that is inherent in it? The three chemical elements of the Alchemists 

 have given place to eighty-two and it is wholly safe to say that the 

 end is not yet. It may even be. as some have thought possible, that 

 the discovery of this great diversity is after all, but a procedure at 

 first unsuspected in a direction of ultimate truth and that we shall 

 find in the end that there is but one primal substance of which these 

 many are but modifications. The conception of truth is not static and 

 fixed. The ever present impulse in the mind of man, to lead him 

 onward and upward to the discovery of its new manifestations and 

 its new embodiments, is the real incentive to all progress and to all 

 civilization. 



And what is true of the historical search for truth in the develop- 

 ment of civilization and of mankind at large in their progress 

 from ignorance to knowledge, in whatsoever particular direction it 

 may have taken, is true also of the individual in his progress through 

 life. It is all a quest for truth and thrice blessed be he who finds 

 truth in certain measure along the way, for herein, too. lies not only 

 the progress of the race as I have attempted to indicate it, but also 

 success and happiness in individual living. It is, again, the quest for 

 truth that urges on the individual, like the race, forward and upward ; 

 that is the only sure incentive to worthy action; that leads to a g al 

 that it is worth while to attain ; that crowns one's efiforts in the end 

 with tlie satisfaction of achievement. 



( To be Continued. ) 



