THE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION.^) 



The noble aim of university teaching is the lifting up of mankind 

 to a higher appreciation of the ideas of life and truth. It has to 

 cultivate the most intimate connection between theory and practise, 

 between abstract science and actual life. Throughout the world of 

 research this connection is felt to be the real stimulus of the work, 

 the very basis of its existence. American universities and American 

 science have developed themselves on this leading principle, and it 

 is especially on this account that high admiration is given them by 

 their European sisters. Nowhere in this world is the mutual con- 

 course between practise and science so general as here, and nowhere 

 is the influence of the universities so widely felt as in this country. 

 Perfect freedom of thought and investigation, unhampered rights 

 of professing and defending one's conviction, even if it should be 

 wholly contrary to the universal belief, are the high privileges of 

 all real universities. Wealthy citizens spend their possessions in 

 the founding of such institutions, convinced that this is the best 

 way of promoting public welfare. The government liberally supplies 

 funds for scientific research, whenever its application to practical 

 business is clear. Your system of promoting agriculture by means 

 of experiment stations, of scientifically conducted farm-cultures, 

 of inquiries in all parts of the world, and of collecting, introducing 

 and trying all kinds of plants that might become useful crops, is 

 not only admired, but even highly envied by us Europeans. 



It is not without hesitation that I have accepted the honorable 

 invitation to speak before this renowned center of learning. The 

 ideas to which I have been conducted by my experiments are to 

 a large degree different from current scientific belief. But I have 

 trusted to your willingness to listen to new facts and divergent 

 convictions, and to your readiness to acknowledge whatever spark 

 of truth might be found in them. Unbiased by prejudice, the calm 

 air of the university and the enthusiasm of youth seeking only truth 



i) Convocation address, University of Chicago, September 2, 1904. 



