PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. 45 



flict between religion and science. There were those who maintained 

 that no snch conflict existed, and others who believed that there was 

 war to the death. The present generation cannot appreciate the state 

 of affairs that existed, so violent was the opposition to the then new 

 teachings of science. To believe in the doctrine of evolution was to 

 brand yourself as an infidel without further ceremony. To believe 

 that the earth required more than the time represented by six of our 

 ordinary days for its formation was scarcely less reprehensible. The 

 doctrines of the conservation of energy and of mass were also dan- 

 gerous, though perhaps less so because their tendencies were less 

 apparent. I remember the horror which an old gentleman expressed 

 for that uplifting and inspiring passage in one of Tyndall's brilliant lec- 

 tures in which he traces nearly everything earthly to the sun. In his 

 view, Tyndall left no place for God. For years Henry Ward Beecher 

 was the only preacher of note that had the breadth and courage to 

 avow his acceptance of the tendencies and teachings of evolution. 

 There were doughty fighters on both sides. There were prejudice and 

 intolerance on both sides. There was lack of sympathy with sincere 

 convictions on both sides. I do not care to make quantitative com- 

 parisons at this time. As always, the younger generation is bearing 

 the banner of progress, and in some form the views of science in re- 

 spect to the age of the earth, the origin of species and the relations 

 of matter and force are accepted with as little concern by this genera- 

 tion as the ideas of the rotundity of the earth and its diurnal revolu- 

 tion were accepted by the previous one. It is important to recognize, 

 too, that, with this prevalence of the views of scientists, "pure relig- 

 ion, and undefiled" has suffered not the slightest loss. In fact, by the 

 trend of events, the methods of science have been introduced into the 

 study of religions, with the result that it has taken on new life, and 

 there is every reason to believe that the future will show developments 

 that will ultimately lead to the reunion of all who sympathize with all 

 that tends to the moral elevation of mankind. 



The nineteenth century will probably always rank as the century of 

 science. Great as have been the material advantages resulting from 

 the discoveries of that century, I believe that its greatest, its farth- 

 est-reaching triumph was the emancipation of the intellect. Science, 

 by her unfaltering courage and superb accomplishment, has become 

 the dominant power of society. The progress of scientific thought 

 is but one phase of the general progress of liberty. The mission of 

 science is but begun ; her methods are being applied in all fields of 

 mental activity, and progress in the study of economics, sociology, 

 ethics and theology will be made by the application of the same prin- 

 ciples that have advanced astronomy, physics, and chemistry, viz., an 



