Address by Professor liiee. xxxvii 



development of the applications of science. Fitly, then, our 

 thoughts to-day dwell, not upon the vast progress of the useful 

 arts, but upon the progress of pure science. Not the economic 

 and the industrial, but the intellectual history of our century 

 claims our attention. 



I do not propose, in the few moments allotted to me this after- 

 noon, to give an inventory of the important scientific discoveries 

 of the nineteenth century. The time would not suffice therefor, 

 even were my knowledge of the various sciences sufficiently 

 encyclopaedic to justify me in the attempt. I wish rather to call 

 your attention to a single broad, general aspect of the intellectual 

 history of our age. I wish to remind you in how large a degree 

 those general ideas which make the distinction between the un- 

 scientific and the scientific view of nature have been the work of 

 the nineteenth century. 



The first of these ideas is the extension of the universe in space. 

 The unscientific mind looks upon the celestial bodies as mere 

 appendages to the earth, relatively of small size, and at no very 

 great distance. The scientific mind beholds the stellar universe 

 stretching away, beyond measured distances whose numerical 

 expression transcends all power of imagination, into immeasur- # 

 able immensities. 



The second of these ideas is the extension of the universe in 

 time. To the unscientific mind, the universe has no history. 

 Since it began to exist, it has existed substantially in its present 

 condition. Among Christian peoples, until the belief was cor- 

 rected by science, the Hebrew tradition of a creative week six 

 thousand years ago was generally accepted as historic fact. If, 

 on the other hand, unscientific minds, not possessed of any sup- 

 posed revelation in regard to the date of the world's origin, 

 thought of the universe as eternal, that eternity was still con- 

 ceived as an eternity of unhistoric monotony. The scientific 

 mind sees in the present condition of the universe the monuments 

 of a long history of progress. 



The third of these ideas is the unity of the universe. To the 

 unscientific mind the universe is a chaos. To the scientific mind 

 it becomes a cosmos. To the unscientific mind, the processes of 

 nature seem to be the result of forces mutually independent and 

 often discordant. Polytheism in religion is the natural counter- 



