EDWARD BURGESS. 129 



tainly aid the possessor of them to understand what jus- 

 tice is, and with the knowledge of it, the disposition to 

 practice it. 



I do not mean by this that the absorbed student of 

 science will necessarily have a juster political instinct 

 than one who is not so occupied. A complete absorption 

 in this or in any other pursuit, to the exclusion of every- 

 thing else, may impair the judgment in matters outside 

 of one's own special field ; matters that, for their proper 

 understanding, require something more than a just in- 

 stinct, but in addition an actual knowledge of the thing 

 itself. 



What I mean is, that the true spirit of science is in 

 complete sympathy with honesty of mind, disinterested- 

 ness, fearlessness in the search for truth and in the utter- 

 ance of it, an unquenchable desire to find out things as 

 they are, no matter whether they accord with long ex- 

 isting practices and prejudices or not. 



It is this very spirit that has already made this nine- 

 teenth century, and especially this latter half of it, a 

 memorable one ; for it is a century of revolution. Revo- 

 lution not less, but even more pronounced and real, than 

 those revolutions that have made themselves memoriable 

 by the shedding of blood. More than anything else in 

 this result owing to the presence of the scientific spirit, 

 which, having dared to pry into everything and having 

 made some astonishing discoveries because of this cour- 

 ageous curiosity, has diffused itself throughout the com- 

 munity at large, and developed a tolerance and candor 

 unknown to former ages. 



This spirit is absolutely essential to the continued 

 growth of man in the future. The theory of evolution 

 has made it clear that there is no known limit to man's 

 development. To establish this truth was a matter of 

 supreme importance. This, once made clear, the direc- 

 tion in which to look for perfection was immediately 



85 



