xxxvi THE DARWIN CENTENARY. [April 23, 



direct and indirect influence which the Hfe-work of Darwin has 

 actually had on the development of the mental and moral sciences. 

 I have endeavored not to obtrude my own personal views and predi- 

 lections. But I cannot forbear, at this point, to ask whether, before 

 deciding upon our attitude toward the doctrine of the evolution of 

 man, it would not be wise for us to turn to history, and to consult 

 the actual development of human thought in the past. 



Again and again, when some new truth of wide significance has 

 been discovered, or has come to be vividly realized, it has seemed 

 to many dangerously revolutionary; it has presented itself under 

 a threatening aspect. Nevertheless, the outcome has not been pure 

 destruction. 



The life of man has never been guided and moulded exclusively 

 by the clear light of science. Religious aspirations, ethical values 

 which have a traditional sanction and which have not been con- 

 sciously evolved as the result of scientific thought, have in all ages 

 acted as a support and a guide to life. The human mind refuses 

 to be held wholly within the limits of what has been definitely and 

 indisputably established — which limits, be it remarked, are by no 

 means so far apart as, to the uninitiated, they seem to be. Man 

 speculates regarding the ground of all things, he has aspirations 

 which seem to reach beyond the span of existence which lies in the 

 light of day before him. 



Now, history has shown that, when any new advance in our 

 positive knowledge has seemed for a while to work with destructive 

 force against the ideas and ideals which have been of such high 

 value to mankind, the result has not been, as a matter of fact, a 

 destruction, but a readjustment, a broadening of view, a rise to 

 higher conceptions and ideals. Religious aspirations and ideals, the 

 conviction that ethical values are sacred and the life of man a thing 

 to be treated with reverence — these attitudes have not been aban- 

 doned. We do not seem to have reason to think that the acceptance 

 of the new evolutionary doctrine will banish them from the world. 



Why, then, should we not freely and unreservedly accept the 

 doctrine of evolution as the useful instrument it has proved itself 

 to be in the sciences which concern themselves with man, and leave 

 to the future the determination by actual experiment of any limits 



