July 6, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



11 



Any cause whicli is suificiently great to 

 attract delegates from all over the United 

 States every one recognizes as a cause of 

 importance. The fact that, from so wide a 

 territory, men and women will come to- 

 gether to discuss that interest stamps it as an 

 interest of unusual importance. This meet- 

 ing lacks no element of importance in that 

 regard. Not only does the Association for 

 the Advancement of Science gather its rep- 

 resentatives from all parts of the Union, 

 but there are also meeting with you this 

 week at least fifteen af&liated societies ; and 

 I believe all of them are national in their 

 scope. But after all, this meeting interests 

 me, less because of the wide range of terri- 

 tory from which it gathers its adherents 

 than from the vast range covered by its in- 

 terests. Here are men and women whose 

 itnerests reach out through the entire uni- 

 verse. Occupied space, so far as its occu- 

 pancy can be made known either by pho- 

 togTaphy or by the specti'oscope, is included 

 naturally within the range of your interest. 

 On the other hand, you deal with the little 

 things of the universe as carefully as with 

 the great things. Here are those who are 

 interested in all life, whether human or of 

 any other kind. Here are those who are 

 interested in inanimate objects, whether 

 great or small. The interests which you 

 have come to serve are not national in their 

 scope only, nor international, nor world- 

 ■wide — they are universal ; and it seems to 

 me that this fact itself is an interesting illus- 

 tration of the unity of Nature. No one can 

 study any part of the natural universe 

 without being drawn into the current with 

 those who are studying the universe in some 

 other part. 



But I should fail, it seems to me, to do 

 justice to your Association if I did not as 

 President of this University, recognize the 

 immense contributions of science to the 

 cause of education. I suppose there is 

 hardly a lecture room in this building in 



which preparation is not made for the use 

 of the electric lamp, so that through the use 

 of electricity and photography almost every 

 branch of scientific research is being for- 

 warded. The student can sit in his room, 

 and see whatever the sun sees ; he can see 

 what the sun never saw, because the sun is 

 blinded bj^ the fullness of its own light ; he 

 can see what exists in the outer universe 

 and also in the depths of the earth. But 

 this is not the greatest contribution science 

 has made to education. After all, it is, in 

 all these things, the unseen rather than the 

 seen that is the essential. I should say that 

 science has contributed to education in the 

 last half century two things vastly more im- 

 portant than all its conti'ibutions to the 

 better equipment of the class room. It has 

 given to us the evolutionary theory ; which, 

 being applied in almost every domain of 

 study, has revolutionized it ; and it has 

 given to us, also, the scientific method. I 

 stated to you that thirteen years ago there 

 was hardly a laboratory in the City of New 

 York in connection with an educational in- 

 stitution. There were chemical laboratories 

 and assay laboratories, here and there, but 

 almost no others. Even the public schools 

 of the City are equipped with laboratories 

 in several sciences at the present time. So 

 that in those two gifts — the evolutionary 

 theory and the scientific method, you have 

 made conti-ibutions which certainly demand 

 the most generous recognition on the part 

 of educators. In making this statement I 

 am sure that I speak, not only for this Uni- 

 versity, but for every university in the 

 land. 



I am especially glad to welcome you be- 

 cause you are an Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. That, after all, is 

 what ought to make you feel at home in the 

 atmosphere of this University ; for a uni- 

 versity that does not assist the advancement 

 of science has hardly a right to call itself by 

 that great name. I heard Phillips Brooks 



