Miscellaneous Papers. 167 



into the intellectual life. To idealize and rationalize the universe at large is, 

 after all, a confession of inability to master the courses of things that spe- 

 cifically concern us— a shifting of the burden over to the shoulder of the 

 Transcendent Cause. Philosophy must in time thus become a method of 

 locating and interpreting the more serious of the conflicts that occur in life 

 and a method of projecting ways of dealing with them. . . . (P. 98:) 

 No one can fairly deny that at present there are evident two effects of the 

 Darwinian mode of thinking. On the one hand, there are efforts to revise 

 our traditional philosophic conceptions in accordance with its demands. On 

 the other hand, there is a type of philosophic knowing, distinct from that 

 of the sciences to which they give access, something that radically tran- 

 scends experiences. . . . Old ideas give way slowly, for they are habits, 

 predispositions, deeply ingrained attitudes of aversion and preference. 

 Intellectual progress usually occurs from the mere abandonment of hotly 

 disputed questions. We do not solve them— we get over them. Old ques- 

 tions are solved by disappearing, evaporating, and new questions take their 

 place. So, doubtless, the greatest dissolvent of old questions, the greatest 

 precipitant of new methods and problems, is the one effected by the scien- 

 tific revolution begun by 'Origin of Species.' " 



Some one has said, wisely, that the scrap basket of civilization is 

 full of forgotten and abandoned problems, their day passed, 



As Dr. E. F. Nichols said, in his recent inaugural address as 

 president of Dartmouth College (Sci., Oct. 15, 1909, p. 507): 



"To understand the recent history of our colleges from any point of 

 view, the intellectual development of the world must betaken into account. 

 . . . The middle of the last century saw the beginning of several intel- 

 lectual movements. Natural science got under way earliest by establishing 

 the doctrines of evolution and energy. The bearing of these broad principles 

 soon became necessary to our modes of thought, as they were immediately 

 recognized to be for our material development. To-day there is no branch 

 of knowledge which has not in some wise been extended and enriched by 

 the philosophical bearing of these wide-sweeping laws which at first were 

 the individual property of natural science. So intimately have they become 

 the guiding principles of all modern constructive thinking that, steer how 

 we will, the man in college cannot escape their teachings. Although these 

 principles are still most significantly presented in the laboratories in which 

 they arose, the student will find their progeny in history, in theology and 

 in law." 



And so, to sum up, perhaps the greatest thing that can be said 

 about evolution is that it gave to the world a new method of thought. 

 It marked an intellectual awakening and made men think broader, 

 deeper and more vigorously. Men have escaped from the tram- 

 mels of authority and finality, and have learned to investigate for 

 themselves and to go to the primal sources for knowledge. The 

 dominant note in intellectual life to-day is earnestness to know 

 the truht. There is a disposition to investigate and analyze, and 

 the weight of mere authority is fast disappearing. But more than 



