246 
remarked: ‘The doctrine of the immor- 
tality of the soul is not so wonderful as 
that of the conservation of energy or of the 
indestructibility of matter.” 
The evidence of the existence of spirit 
is precisely analogous to the evidence for 
matter; matter, as we have seen, is re- 
vealed to us only as its phenomena, exten- 
sion, weight, color, behavior when sub- 
jected to heat, etc., affect our senses ; of its 
essence we know nothing ; spirit, likewise, 
is revealed to our consciousness through its 
powers of thinking, feeling and willing, but 
of the essential spirit the finite mind knows 
nothing. ‘‘ Matter,’ writes an American 
scientist, ‘‘is the thing perceived, spirit the 
thing perceiving, matter is the passive, 
spirit the active principle. Without a be- 
lief in spirit, therefore, not only can there 
be no religion, no virtue, but there can be 
no philosophy or science. * * * The very 
origin of our notion of force is the con- 
sciousness of our own mental energy, and 
this universal energy of Nature is an 
effluence of the Divine Being.” 
Faith, both in science and in religion, is 
belief based on suitable evidence from 
sources outside of personal experience, both 
are fruitful in different ways, the former 
affecting the intellect and the latter the 
heart of man; scientific faith bears fruit in 
the steamship and in the telegraph, Chris- 
tian faith in works of mercy and charity 
and in a life of love shown toward man- 
kind and to God; it is 
“The subtle chain 
That binds us to the Infinite.” 
On the other hand, some students of 
science, accustomed to exercise faith in 
their attempts to solve obscure problems 
in the material world, hesitate (and a few 
refuse) to extend this intellectual power to 
the spiritual universe ; this is undoubtedly 
due to the operation of the will, for 
““A man along that road is led 
Which he himself desires to tread.’ 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. XIII. No. 320. 
The supreme goal of the student of 
science was admirably conceived and ex- 
pressed in a single sentence by the re- 
nowned Kepler, when he wrote nearly 
three centuries ago : 
‘The scientist’s highest privilege is to 
know the mind and to think the thoughts 
of GOD !” 
H. Carrineton Bouton. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
THE SOCIETY FOR PLANT MORPHOLOGY 
AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
TuE Society met, together with the Amer- 
ican Society of Naturalists and the A ffili- 
ated Societies, at Johns Hopkins Medical 
School, Baltimore, Md., December 27-28, 
1900, under the presidency of Professor D. 
P. Penhallow. There was a large attend- 
ance of members, and the meeting was in 
all ways profitable and successful. The 
presidential address dealt with ‘A Decade 
of North American Paleobotany’; it was 
published in this Journal for February 1st. 
The most important business of general in- 
terest was the presentation of the report of 
the Committee (Messrs. Farlow, MacDougal 
and von Schrenk) appointed to consider 
methods of securing improvements in re- 
views of current botanical literature. 
Copies of the report were distributed to 
members present, and have been sent to 
other botanists throughout the country. 
It shows a completely successful result of 
the Committee’s work, and comments upon 
it will appear later in this Journal. A 
committee was also appointed (consisting 
of Messrs. Ganong, Lloyd and Atkinson), 
to take into consideration the formulation 
of a standard college entrance option in 
botany. On Saturday, December 29th, 
the members of the Society, with guests, 
made an excursion to Washington, where 
they were shown the work of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, and were received by 
the Honorable Secretary for Agriculture, 
