PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15 
power of choosing one of these wishes, and acting upon it; 
that is, to the exercise of free will. It seems to me that 
free will would be useless to any being who. did not possess a 
moral sense, for its only use is to cultivate morality. The 
exercise of this free will by ignorant man leads to much in- 
justice on the earth; but that is part of his education, and 
no doubt the end will be found to justify the means. 
Now, we cannot think that the evolutionary process, of 
which I have given you a mere sketch, is confined to the 
earth alone. We must suppose that, whatever may be the 
object for which the Solar System was called into existence, 
it is for the same purpose that the various stellar systems 
exist. And, in all probability, long after the sun is cold 
and dark, other stellar systems, each in its turn, will take up 
the development of life and mind. But they, aso, in time, 
will become cold and lifeless, until, at last, the process, «© 
far as it is connected with the material Universe, will be 
ever. But is it not possible that evolution may still go on 
after life has perished? This is a point to which I wil! re- 
turn presently. 
Desicn IN NATURE. 
Evolution is evidently due to the action of mind. There 
are some who still maintain an opposite view, but I think 
that their numbers are fast diminishing. It seems to me 
that no one who has a competent knowledge of biology and 
paleontology can possibly accept the doctrine that living 
organisms are the outcome of chance. Darwin distinctly 
repudiated the idea, and thought that variation in »nimals 
and plants cou!d not be explained by a mechanical theory of 
the Universe. I must here try to make my meaning clear. 
We apply the word chance to those phenomena which are 
irregular in their appearance, and which are due to causes 
too complicated for us to unravel. We call throwing dice 
chance, because we cannot foretell what will happen. 
Similarly, if we say that evolution is due to chance, we mean 
that the Author of Nature could not foretell the re<u ts of 
the action of the forces he was setting in motion. Now, is 
the universe due to design, or is it due to what we may call 
a lucky throw? Has it been brought about intentionally 
or unintentionally? That is the question. 
It may be possible to imagine a cloud formed by meteor- 
ites, which are moving rapidly in all directions, but are un- 
able to escape from the cloud, gradualy changing, by 
mechanical laws, into a sun with its attendant planets. But 
we cannot imagine how the action of any mechanical causes 
could clothe one of those planets with vegetation; fill that: 
vegetation with various kinds of animal life, and, at last. 
