78 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Just now, gentlemen, I would not want to say that this Govern- 

 ment needed any advice from scientific or other men outside of 

 the Democratic party (laughter), unless it might be how to obey 

 the civil service law of the land and satisfy the desire of the 

 average Democrat for office. (Laughter and applause.) 



If, either by telescope or microscope or any other " scope," 

 science can determine that question for my brother upon whom 

 rests the burden of government, there will be no reward which 

 Congress will not be willing to bestow upon the eminent gentle- 

 man who finds it out. 



I say that, just now, it may not be necessary for the United 

 States of America to call for advice; and yet, a plain, untutored, 

 uncultured man — myself — I have both a veneration for you and 

 a fear of you; a veneration for your devotion to subjects which 

 seem to be abstruse, which have but little to do with statecraft, 

 so far as the world sees it, and but little to do with the accumula- 

 tion of wealth and property, and a fear of you that, in your 

 investigations, you may discover that the economic policy of the 

 Democratic party is wrong. (Laughter.) 



It is good for a man, however much he falls short himself in 

 the splendid ideals of life, to look into the faces of men who 

 have lifted themselves above the petty cares, the turmoil and the 

 vexations of the ordinary business and professional life, who 

 have dedicated and consecrated themselves to the finding out of 

 what is truth, who want, twenty centuries after carping Pilate 

 asked the question, to make an answer to a still further inquiring 

 world. 



It is good to look upon a body of men who do not stand as men 

 stood in the early ages of the world, looking at and believing 

 every thing they saw, but rather as men upon whose shoulders 

 there now rests the burden of the centuries, until their backs are 

 bowed and each stands forth as an interrogation point, asking, 

 " Why, why, why " of everything that is seen. 



It is a splendid thing to face a body of men such as you are 

 and to bid you God speed, peace, contentment, long life, and to 

 pray you to still continue to have that sacred devotion to the 



