TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
VASSAR BROTHERS INSTITUTE, 
1885-1886. 
NOVEMBER 10, 1885—TWENTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING. 
Forty members and two hundred guests present. 
ANNUAL- ADDRESS. 
INTERPRETATIONS OF NATURE. 
BY WILLIAM G. STEVENSON, M.D., PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE. 
Members of the Institute, Ladies and Gentlemen : As 
a sentient, perceptive, and self-conscious being, man has 
ever sought to interpret the phenomena of the world 
around, and to solve the mysteries of his own existence ; 
and the interpretations which have been given at dif- 
ferent times may be illustrated by the myths and 
legends of the past, by the scope and progress of specu- 
lative thought, and by the generalizations of inductive 
reasoning. These are the pictures in the gallery of 
thought, the visions—grotesque and sublime—which re- 
flect man’s ideal conceptions of nature. 
To primitive man the world was only what the senses 
made it; and, in the absence of knowledge, the interpre- 
tations of nature depended upon the freaks of an ex- 
travagant fancy. The world was filled with mystic dei- 
ties, made after the similitude of man, and beasts, and 
