136 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 



in making the nineteenth century ever memorable in history is the 

 outcome of a long series of causes, acting through many centuries, 

 which are worthy of especial attention on such an occasion as this. 

 In setting them forth we should avoid laying stress on those visible 

 manifestations which, striking the eye of every beholder, are in no 

 danger of being overlooked, and search rather for those agencies whose 

 activities underlie the whole visible scene, but which are liable to be 

 blotted out of sight by the very brilliancy of the results to which they 

 have given rise. It is easy to draw attention to the wonderful qualities 

 of the oak; but from that very fact, it may be needful to point out 

 that the real wonder lies concealed in the acorn from which it grew. 



Our inquiry into the logical order of the causes which have made 

 our civilization what it is to-day will be facilitated by bringing to 

 mind certain elementary considerations ideas so familiar that 

 setting them forth may seem like citing a body of truisms and 

 yet so frequently overlooked, not only individually, 'but in their 

 relation to each other, that the conclusion to which they lead may be 

 lost to sight. One of these propositions is that psj^chical rather than 

 material causes are those which we should regard as fundamental in 

 directing the development of the social organism. The human 

 intellect is the really active agent in every branch of endeavor, 

 the primum mobile of civilization, and all those material mani- 

 festations to which our attention is so often directed are to be re- 

 garded as secondary to this first agency. If it be true that " in the 

 world is nothing great but man; in man is nothing great but mind," 

 then should the keynote of our discourse be the recognition of this 

 first and greatest of powers. 



Another well-known fact is that those applications of the forces 

 of nature to the promotion of human welfare which have made our 

 age what it is, are of such comparatively recent origin that we need 

 go back only a single century to antedate their most important fea- 

 tures, and scarcely more than four centuries to find their beginning. 

 It follows that the subject of our inquiry should be the commence- 

 ment, not many centuries ago, of a certain new form of intellectual 

 activity. 



Having gained this point of view, Qur next inquiry will be into the 

 nature of that activity, and its relation to the stages of progress 

 which preceded and followed its beginning. The superficial observer, 

 who sees the oak but forgets the acorn, might tell us that the special 

 qualities which have brought out such great results are expert 

 scientific knowledge and rare ingenuity, directed to the application 

 of the powers of steam and electricity. From this point of view the 

 great inventors and the great captains of industry were the first 

 agents in bringing about the modern era. But the more careful 

 inquirer will see that the work of these men was possible only through 



