57 
each one, and it has called into existence something that is better than it 
was itself. Our criticism is constructive. 
I believe scientific men—or at least if you will make it a little broader 
than that, the school-master today is the priest of today; and he is going 
to be the priest of the future. There were some questions submitted to 
the children of the schools in one of our cities; one of them was, ‘*Where 
is Heaven?” In the answers one of the pupils (it was a girl, so there 
could not have been any malice in it) said that Heaven was said to be 
above the clouds, but she added that physical geography teaches that the 
atmosphere is only about forty-five miles high, and that even a very few 
miles up it is probably not possible for anybody to live, so Heaven could 
not be there at all. Whatever that child may have thought that was 
wrong or inadequate about Heaven, it is clear that she believed the things 
her teacher had taught her about the air. He, instead of her minister— 
if she had one—was her priest. 
I happened to be present at the inception of this Society after Amos 
Butler brought it to us, and of course it would be very easy to continue 
these reminiscences; but that is not what the committee asked me to do, 
and I do not intend to do it. But this Society has been a great help to me 
and to all of us, not only in its meetings, but in the rambles we have had 
over all parts of Indiana in our Spring meetings. We went out to Fort 
Quiatanon and hunted beads the Indians had lost at the old trading post 
and were as happy when we found one as the Indians were sorry when 
they lost it; we have gone over the whole State getting acquainted with 
whatever of interest it had to offer. Even at the very first meeting down 
at Brookville, the home of the Academy, we went swimming, and naturally 
got acquainted with ourselves; saw ourselves in a sense in which others 
did not very often see us. (Laughter). These social occasions have been 
the best part to me, after all is said, of the meetings of the Academy from 
the beginning until now. 
I have the pleasant and easy task of introducing first a man who 
needs no presentation to scientific men anywhere; a man who needs ho 
title, but whose titles are so numerous that there would not be time to 
read them. He is an investigator and a teacher, was for a time the pre- 
mier of Indiana teachers. He is an author to whom science owes much 
and man owes more; the man for whom the river Jordan was named. 
(Laughter). Dr. David Starr Jordan, President of Leland Stanford 
University. (Applause.) 
