ADDRESS, 23 
in science its material benefits only, such men have thoughts of despair 
when they look forward to the times to come. But if there be any truth 
in what I have attempted to urge to-night, if the intellectual, if the moral 
influences of science are no less marked than her material benefits, if, more- 
over, that which she has done is but the earnest of that which she shall do, 
such men may pluck up courage and gather strength by laying hold of her 
garment. We men of science at least need not share their views or their 
fears. Our feet are set, not on the shifting sands of the opinions and of the 
fancies of the day, but ona solid foundation of verified truth, which by the 
labours of each succeeding age is made broader and more firm. To us the 
past is a thing to look back upon, not with regret, not as something which 
has been lost never to be regained, but with content, as something whose 
influence is with us still, helping us on our further way. With us, indeed, 
the past points not to itself, but to the future ; the golden age is in front 
of us, not behind us ; that which we do know is a lamp whose brightest 
beams are shed into the unknown before us, showing us how much there 
is ahead and lighting up the way to reach it. We are confident in the 
advance because, as each one of us feels that any step forward which he 
may make is not ordered by himself alone and is not the result of his own 
sole efforts in the present, but is, and that in large measure, the out- 
come of the labours of others in the past, so each one of us has the sure 
and certain hope that as the past has helped him, so his efforts, be they 
great or be they small, will be a help to those to come. 
