ix MANCHESTER ADDRESS, 1887 233 



in an age which has witnessed an advance in our know- 

 ledge of nature, and a consequent improvement in the 

 physical and, let us trust, also in the moral and intel- 

 lectual well-being of the people hitherto unknown ; an 

 age with which the name of Victoria will ever be 

 associated." 



My address concluded with the welcoming of the 

 foreign guests and expressing the hope that the meet- 

 ing might be "the commencement of an international 

 scientific organisation. But, whether this hope be real- 

 ised or not, we all unite in that one great object, the 

 search after truth for its own sake, and we all, therefore, 

 may join in re-echoing the words of Lessing : ' The 

 worth of man lies not in the truth which he possesses, 

 or believes that he possesses, but in the honest endeavour 

 he puts forth to secure that truth ; for not by the posses- 

 sion of truth, but by the search after it, are the faculties 

 of man enlarged, and in this alone consists his ever- 

 growing perfection. Possession fosters content, indo- 

 lence, and pride. If God should hold in His right hand 

 all truth, and in His left hand the ever-active desire to 

 seek truth though with the condition of perpetual error, 

 I should humbly ask for the contents of the left hand, 

 saying, ' Father, give me this ; pure truth is only for 

 Thee." 7 



At the close of my address the Mayor, Sir John 

 Harwood, moved a vote of thanks to me, who, as he 

 kindly said, was not only known but endeared to the 

 people of Manchester. The most interesting speech 

 was that made by Professor Asa Gray, of Harvard, 

 which was as follows : 



For the very great honour of being called upon to second 

 the motion for a vote of thanks to your illustrious President, I 

 am mainly indebted to that deference which is naturally 

 accorded to advancing years, a deference which sometimes 

 as in the present case takes one unawares, 



