222 EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATOR. 



of especial attention on such an occasion as this. In setting them 

 forth we sliould axoid hiying stress on those visible manifestations 

 which, strilcing the eA^e of every beholder, are in no danger of being 

 overlooked, and search rather for those agencies whose activities 

 underlie the whole visible scene, l)ut which are liable to be blotted 

 out of sight by the very brilliancy of the results to which they liave 

 given rise. It is easy to draw attention to the wonderful qualities 

 of the oak ; but. f roin that very fact, it may be needful to point out 

 that the real wonder lies concealed in the acorn from which it grew. 



Our inquiry into the logical order of the causes which have made 

 our civilization what it is to-day will be facilitated by bringing to 

 mind certain elementary considerations — ideas so familiar that setting 

 tliem forth may seem like citing a body of truisms — and yet so fre- 

 quently overlooked, not only individually, but in their relation to 

 each other, that the conclusion to which they lead may be lost to 

 sight. One of these propositions is that j^sychical rather than mate- 

 rial causes are those Avhich we should regard as fundamental in direct- 

 ing the deA'elopment of the social organism. The human intellect is 

 the really active agent in ever}' branch of endeavor — the primum 

 mobile of civilization — and all those material manifestations to which 

 our attention is so often directed are to be regarded as secondary to 

 tliis first agency. If it be true that " in the world is nothing great 

 but man; in man is nothing great but mind,"" then should the key- 

 note of our discourse be the recognition of this first and greatest of 

 powers. 



Another M^ell-known fact is that those applications of the forces 

 of nature to the promotion of human welfare which have made our 

 age what it is are of such comparatively recent origin that we need 

 go back only a single century to antedate their most important fea- 

 tures, and scarcely more than four centuries to find their beginnig. 

 It follows that the subject of our inquiry should be the connnence- 

 ment, not many centuries ago, of a certain new form of intellectual 

 activity. 



Having gained this ])oint of A'iew, our next iiujuiry will be into the 

 nature of tliat acti\ity and its relation (o the stages of progress which 

 preceded and followed its beginning. The superficial observer, who 

 sees the oak but forgets the acorn, might tell us that the special 

 qualities Avhich have brought out such great results are expert scien- 

 tific knowledge and rare ingenuity, directed to the application of 

 the powers of steam and electricity. From this point of view the 

 great inventors and the great captains of industry were the first 

 agents in bringing about the modern era. But the more careful 

 inquirer will see that the work of tliese men was possible only through 

 a knowledge of the laws of nature, whicli had Ixhmi gained by men 

 whose work took precedence of theirs in logical order, and that 



