PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 41 
vestigators has even now landed on the treacherous but promising 
shores of a new continent. 
Yes, and there is more to say than that. The methods of science 
are not the only way, though they are one way, of being piloted to 
truth. ‘ Uno itinere non potest perveniri ad tam grande secretum.’ 
Many scientific men still feel in pugnacious mood towards Theo- 
logy, because of the exaggerated dogmatism which our predecessors 
encountered and overcame in the past. They had to struggle for 
freedom to find truth in their own way; but the struggle was a deplor- 
able necessity, and has left some evil effects. And one of them is 
this lack of sympathy, this occasional hostility, to other more spiritual 
forms of truth. We cannot really and seriously suppose that truth 
began to arrive on this planet a few centuries ago. The pre-scientific 
insight of genius—of Poets and Prophets and Saints—was of supreme 
value, and the access of those inspired seers to the heart of the 
universe was often profound. But the camp followers, the scribes and 
pharisees, by whatever name they may be called, had no such insight, 
only a vicious or a foolish obstinacy: and the prophets of a new era 
were stoned. 
Now at last we of the new era have been victorious, and the stones 
are in our hands. But for us to imitate the old ecclesiastical attitude 
would be folly, for it cannot be sustained; humanity would ultimately 
rise against us, and there would come yet another period of reaction, 
in which for a time we should be worsted. Through the best part of 
two centuries there has been a revolt from religion, led by Voltaire 
and other great writers of that age; but let us see to it that the revolt 
ceases when it has gone far enough. Let us not fall into the mistake 
of thinking that ours is the only way of exploring the multifarious 
depths of the universe, and that all others are worthless and mistaken, 
The universe is a larger thing than we have any conception of, and no 
one method of search will exhaust its treasures. 
Men and brethren, we are trustees of the truth of the physical 
universe as scientifically explored: let us be faithful to our trust. 
Genuine religion has its roots deep down in the heart of humanity 
and in the reality of things. It is not surprising that by our methods 
we fail to grasp it: the actions of the Deity make no appeal to any 
Special sense, only a universal appeal; and our methods are, as we 
_ know, incompetent to detect complete uniformity. There is a Prin- 
ciple a Relativity here, and unless we encounter flaw or jar or change, 
_ nothing in us responds ; we are deaf and blind therefore to the Imma- 
nent Grandeur, unless we have insight enough to recognise in the woven 
fabric of existence, flowing steadily from the loom in an infinite pro- 
gress towards perfection, the ever-growing garment of a transcendent 
God. 
