The Days of a Man 1909 



the ins and outs of pure selection and pure adaptation, men are 

 now coming back to the position outlined and unswervingly 

 maintained by him." 



The chief and essential contention of Darwin, that species 

 are formed by natural processes, is now absolutely established. 

 That the animals and plants today, man included, are descended 

 from the animals and plants of earlier periods by natural lines 

 of descent with modification, is one of the certainties of modern 

 science. 



Back to In June of this year I gave the Commencement 

 Indiana address at the University of Indiana, receiving at the 

 same time the degree of Doctor of Laws from the in- 

 stitution. 1 This was the occasion also of the twenty- 

 fifth reunion of the class of 1884, a group of young 

 people with whom I had enjoyed close relations, so 

 that I felt quite at home on the Bloomington Campus. 

 At the beginning of the fall semester, in connection 

 with Dr. Edward Krehbiel of the chair of Modern 



1 Inasmuch as the highest honor to a teacher is found in the loyalty of his 

 students, my readers may pardon me if I quote here the words of Dr. William 

 Lowe Bryan, spoken in granting the degree: 



"The University of Indiana discontinued the granting of honorary degrees 

 for twenty years. Within the past four years the degree of Doctor of Laws has 

 been granted here twice once to Dr. John W. Foster and once to James 

 Whitcomb Riley. The University judged that these men met two conditions 

 . . . first, that they were men of high distinction, and second, that there was 

 a particular reason why the degree should be conferred upon them by this 

 institution. For the third time the University invites a man to accept this 

 academic dignity. 



" David Starr Jordan, you have fulfilled the first condition by your eminence 

 in Science, by your service as a teacher, of which the best evidence is the number 

 and quality of your disciples, by your place among the men who administer 

 American universities, and, not least, by the courage unsurpassed by your 

 Puritan ancestors with which you have stood not foi the truth of yesterday, 

 but of today. You have fulfilled the second condition because for a dozen of 

 your best years you gave this service to America as a member of Indiana Uni- 

 versity. I have, therefore, great satisfaction in admitting you to the degree of 

 Doctor of Laws/' 



Honors of that sort fall easily to college presidents. Cornell, as my readers 

 may remember, had made me an LL.D. in 1886, Johns Hopkins followed in 

 1902, Illinois College in 1903, Western Reserve in 1915, and the University of 

 California in 1916. 



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