2 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



certainty that given combinations will produce unvarying results. 

 The social reformer, the Parliamentarian, the diplomat have no 

 laboratories in which they can produce results akin to those of 

 the synthetic chemist, but they can emulate his spirit. In dis- 

 cussing questions pertaining to race we are not dealing only with 

 matter, even sentient matter. There is what is termed human 

 n?ture involved, and it is impossible to proceed far in any direc- 

 tion without the physical enquiry merging into a rnetaphysical 

 discussion. A new process of separating and refining gold may 

 be so demonstrated as almost to compel its acceptance throughout 

 the world where similar conditions exist, but there is no exact 

 science of human nature which will enable us to invent, discover, 

 or apply tests which will be invariable in their operation, and so 

 enable us to bring about improvement in results which we are 

 seeking'. Still the questions to which science may assist in finding 

 an answer are numerous, and the aid of the scientific spirit 

 especially should prove of very real value. If it be asked wherein 

 the advantage of that spirit consists, let the answer be found in 

 the work of a Lister, a i^asteur, a Curie, an Edison. These, whose 

 discoveries and applications of knowledge are lauded by the 

 world, sought for truth in facts ; they sought it fearlessly, they 

 applied it honestly, and they did not expect satisfactory results 

 ii they neglected, ignored, or defied the facts which they verified. 

 The problems in the field of human nature are of a dififerent 

 character to thejrs, but who shall say that they are not more 

 readily soluble than we have found them hitherto if approached in 

 the same spirit? But that spirit must include on unwavering 

 desire and determination to know, followed by an unfaltering 

 courage to apply the knowledge gained. At the bacjv of the 

 scientific spirit there is always the definite assurance that Nature 

 cannot be fooled. The experiment which is not wholly honest 

 produces no reliable result. Any earnest study of man in this 

 spirit will reveal some facts relating to his being which can be 

 definitely verified, and these being established make a not 

 altogether useless contribution to the practical study of questions 

 ri?ing out of race interests, race prejudices, and concurrent 

 matters. On the other hand, a merely physical investigation does 

 not explain race-consciousness, or suggest a remedy for the 

 problems which that consciousness creates. When physical 

 science has done its best there will still be found that in human 

 nature which does not react to any physical test. Yet when it 

 is stated that the physicist deals with facts and the metaphysician 

 with words the distinction is unworkable. Words are the symbols 

 of facts, and things, and their properties ; and race-consciousness 

 is a property of human nature for which the merely physical 

 does not adequately account. Science has been defined as 

 organized knowledge, and the first step towards the solution of 

 the problems before us is the knowledge of what race-conscious- 

 ness really is. 



I. The first outstanding fact \\hich should be noted concern- 

 ing the human race is its unity. 



