ADDRESSES 289 



immediately and is ready to stand a quiet observer in the 

 presence of the putting forth of vital powers. 



Variety is the initiatory step of all progress, and we may 

 thankfully accept a score of unimportant foundlings, if 

 after repeated failures we succeed in producing one ser- 

 viceable one of lasting benefit to the human kind. 



But the world is too impatient for results — like the Athen- 

 ians of old, madly rushing about, ever seeking for something 

 new. Progress is the cry of the age, progressive thought 

 the pet pride of to-day. The charm of antiquity is broken. 

 The historic tales of our childhood have faded into myth 

 before the cold scrutiny of modern learning. The idols of 

 the past are overthrown and trodden underfoot by the 

 iconoclasts of the present. No doctrine is too sacred, no 

 dogma too hoary for the levelers of to-day. Every year, 

 nay every month, witnesses the birth of some new theory, 

 some grand discovery in the laws of Nature, who in her old 

 age seems as prolific of law as a continental congress. New 

 creeds, new sciences, new methods are springing up like 

 the fabled race of heroes from the uncanny sowing of the 

 dragon's teeth, and all under the glorious reign of progres- 

 sive thought. Well will it be for us if in this universal 

 demand for something new, something strange, some- 

 thing out of the beaten track, we can heed the lesson of the 

 hour and patiently watch and wait — watch though the 

 world deride our waiting; wait till the harvest crowns our 

 watching. 



From the "seely wench," who, according to Piatt, taught 

 the art of setting corn by accidentally dropping some wheat 

 seeds in holes into which she ought to have dibbled car- 

 rots and radishes; from the sowing of potatoes broadcast 



