176 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



and the results of science, is hailed as a peace-maker among the differ- 

 ent nations. Simon Xewcomb, recentlj' the President of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, in his opening address at 

 the late meeting in Nashville, gave this incident in these words : " A 

 few years ago it was my fortune to be in Paris, at a time when the cele- 

 brated Commune was in full sway. In the reaction which followed the 

 downfall of Louis Napoleon, the populace was engaged in destroying 

 every remnant of monarchy. The mystic letter "N" was torn down, 

 and even the names of streets which savored of monarchy displaced. 

 One day I was being shown through the rooms where the Academies of 

 France held their meetings. I noticed in a prominent position a picture 

 bearing the well-known face of the great warrior, and under it ' Napoleon 

 Bonaparte, First Consul.' I expressed my solicitude as to that picture's 

 remaining there. Why it happened to remain there was met by the em- 

 phatic response, ' Politics never enter here.'' Thus during seventy years 

 of internal turmoil among the most excitable people known, in an asso- 

 ciation which contained extremes of both parties, that picture had 

 remained untouched during the revolutions which had affected the gov- 

 ernment of France. This is the spirit of science everywhere." Such, 

 friends, is the spirit which shall reign within this building, whose corner- 

 stone we lay this day. 



We all know something of the utility of the knowledge which is 

 scientific. When cities were ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated and ill- 

 watered, and the people ill-washed, ill-fed and ill-clothed, the plague 

 came as a visitation of Providence. Science destroys the possibility of 

 the plague. By the use of the steam engine and the forcing pump, 

 mines are successfully worked. Wheels turn on axles with inconceivable 

 velocity, without burning or (lying into pieces. The air-pump has taken 

 away the dread of locomotion by steam. 



It is the mission of science to utilize all the forces of the earth, which 

 exist in air and water, rock and soil. The forces resident in the sun are 

 now being utilized, and the colors are made parlor companions and 

 kitchen servants. Here by the side of the "• Father of Waters," which 

 is building up a continent in the Gulf of Mexico with the soil taken 

 from our feet, we would do something for science ; we would lay the 

 corner-stone of her temple on this spot, that, if possible, our works may 

 go forth to help build in human life that continent of knowledge from 

 which may spring a more perfect form of human society than has yet 

 appeared upon this earth. 



I would emphasize the thought that the exact knowledge which is 

 sought in scientific pursuits is the sure ground of prosperity and the essen- 

 tial thing to bring man into the freedom of his reason and liberty of 

 . action. It were tit if the kind of stone we here lay were the undermost 

 stone of the earth's crust, for as the earth has its foundations upon 

 granite, so all the prosperity of mankind is conditioned upon the knowl- 

 edge of the laws of nature in matter and in mind, which knowledge 

 comes by the patient study of that book which always bears the imprint 

 of its author. 



