232 EVOLUTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATOR. 



The asHenil)ling of such a hody as now fills this hall was scarcely 

 possible ill any ])r('cc(liii<>' veneration, and is iiiacle possible now only 

 through the aijency oi" science itself. It dilfers from all preceding 

 international meetings by the universality of its sco])e, wliich aims 

 to include the whole of knowledge. It is also unique in that none 

 but leaders have been sought out as members. It is iiniciue in that so 

 many lands have delegated their choicest intellects to carry on its 

 work. They come from the country to which our Hei)ublic is indebted 

 for a third of its territory, including the ground on Avliich we stand; 

 from the land which has taught us that the most scholarly devotion 

 to the languages and learning of the cloistered past is compatible 

 with leadership in the [)ractical application of modern science to the 

 arts of life; from the island whose language and literature have 

 found a new field and a vigorous growth in this region; from the 

 last seat of the holy Roman Empire; from the country which, re- 

 menib(M"ing a monarch who made an astronomical ()bser\ation at the 

 (jreenwich Observatory, has enthroned science in one of the highest 

 places in its government; from the peninsula so leaiiied that we 

 have invited one of its scholars to come and tell us of our own 

 language; from the land which gave birth to Leonardo, Galileo, 

 Torricelli, Columbus, Yolta — what an array or immortal names! — 

 from the little republic of glorious history which, breeding men 

 rugged as its eternal snow peaks, has yet Ix'cii the seat of scientiric 

 investigation since the day of the lieriioullis; from the land whose 

 iieroic dwellers did not hesitate to use the ocean itself to protect it 

 against invaders, and which now makes us inarAel at the amount of 

 erudition comi)ressed Avithin its little area; from the nation across 

 the Pacific, which by half a century of iinequaled ])rogress in the 

 arts of life has made an important contribution to evolutionary sci- 

 ence through demoiistrating the falsity of the theory that the most 

 ancient races are doomed to be left in the rear of the advancing age — 

 in a word, from every great center of intellectual activity on the 

 globe I see before me eminent ivpresentatives of that Avorld advance 

 in knowledge Avhich we have met to celebrate. May we not confi- 

 dently hope that the discussions of such an asseinl)lage will ])rove 

 j)regnaiit of a future for science which shall outshine even its l)ril- 

 liant past? 



Gentlemen and scholai's all, you do not visit our shores to find 

 great collections in which centuries of humanity lunc given expres- 

 sion on canvas and in marbli' to their hopes, fears, and aspirations. 

 Nor do you e.\])ect institutions and buildings hoary with age. But 

 as you feel the vigor latent in the fresh air of these exjiansive prai- 

 ii<'s, which has collecte*! the ])roducts of human genius l)y wliicii we 

 are here surrounded, and, I may add, brought us together; as you 

 study the institutions Avhich we have founded for the benefit not only 



