LVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



existing in our day; but their civilization was material and their mem- 

 ory has passed into oblivion. The temple libraries recently exhumed 

 contained deeds, contracts, leases, and such like practical documents, 

 but nothing corresponding to the literature of the Jews or Greeks. The 

 life was material, and therefore perished like the docks and palaces. 

 The whole wealth and power of Asia was hurled back by a small band 

 of idealists at Marathon and Thennopylaj, and, while the native annals 

 of those great powers are a blank, the history of the little cantons of 

 Greece and the deeds of their citizens have been a guide through all 

 the ages. The names of many of the poorest citizens of Athens are 

 familiar to us, but who knows the names of the merchant princes of 

 Tyre and Sidon. Perished are their docks and palaces, perished are 

 their names and deeds ; but the work of the " blind old singer of Scio's 

 locky Isle " still lives. 



Other creations may fade, to shapeless ruin decaying; 



Over the world of thy song, youth's earliest dawn is still playing. 



While the monuments of ancient literature are enduring and are 

 still influencing the actions of mankind, it is not so in the case of those 

 studies which deal with the world of matter. The science of Aristotle 

 has been obsolete for centuries — his logic, rhetoric, and poetics are 

 text-books in our great universities. The last shred of Greek physical 

 speculation — the atomic theory — which was generally accepted at the 

 close of the nineteenth century has been hopelessly shattered. We had, 

 until the last few years, a working theory of the material universe, 

 but we must now look roimd for another, and we are face to face with 

 the fact that the triumphs of science have been chiefly in ministering 

 to the comforts of the outer life. We are no nearer to tlie inner reality 

 of the material world. It is now the duty of sociology to apply these 

 rich conquests over the entire area of human life and elevate the whole 

 race to a higher moral and intellectual plane by mitigating the struggle 

 for life. In that task the study of mankind alone can guide us, and 

 where can the spirit of man be studied if not in its interaction with 

 the Time-spirit throughout the ages, as portrayed upon the scroll of . 

 history. 



Great as have been the changes wrought by the advance of science 

 during the last fifty years, the changes of the last decade in our funda- 

 mental conceptions of matter and of the ultimate constitution of the 

 universe have been still more profound, and I am proud to add that 

 some of the Fellows of our Society are among the leaders in this move- 

 ment of scientific thought. The human mind will not rest without a 



