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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1077 



for raiment, always looking down, never 

 looking up, knowing nothing of the universe 

 except an insignificant stratum of the little 

 earth. This picture is only a moderately 

 unfair view of life as it existed on our 

 planet four hundred years ago, before the 

 days of the telescope, the spectroscope and 

 the photographic plate, and before the days 

 of freedom of speech and thought. The 

 earth is no longer flat, supported on the 

 back of a great turtle which rests upon 

 nothing; it is round, and we know why; 

 and it revolves around the sun in exact 

 obedience to law. The stars are not lanterns 

 hung out in the sky by angels at night; 

 they are suns, hundreds of millions of 

 suns, each on the average comparable in 

 size to our sun. Exists there an intelligent 

 man in the world whose thoughts, every 

 day and many times a day, are not adapted 

 to these facts ? Who can estimate the value 

 of this knowledge to the human race? 



We have not yet seen little earths revolv- 

 ing around any stars except our own, nor 

 do we know that intelligent beings live 

 upon such planets and are looking down 

 toward our system and seeing our sun as 

 a little star in their night sky; but every- 

 body now holds as absurd the view that our 

 star is the only one of the hundreds of mil- 

 lions of stars which has little planets re- 

 volving around it, or that our earth is the 

 only one that is inhabited by intelligent 

 life. Can there be a more inspiring thought 

 than that intelligent beings are probably 

 living here and there throughout the uni- 

 verse, in whatever direction we may look? 

 The spectroscope has shown that the chem- 

 ical elements which compose the earth are 

 also the constituents of our sun and of the 

 other suns. We have no reason to doubt 

 that the chemistry of the earth is the chem- 

 istry of the universe. The spectroscope and 

 the photographic plate are telling us of the 

 close relationship of the nebulae to those 



stars which we call the youngest stars, of 

 the young stars to the middle-aged stars, 

 and of the middle-aged stars to the old 

 stars. We can not doubt that the stars are 

 growing older, as we are growing older, as 

 everything in nature is changing and grow- 

 ing older, and in accordance with the same 

 laws which govern the changes on the earth. 

 The student of double stars finds that the 

 movements of the two components of a dis- 

 tant double star system are in accordance 

 with the law of gravitation. Every particle 

 of our experience leads us to believe that 

 the reign of the laws which control our 

 everyday affairs is universal; that the 

 strict relationship of cause and effect ap- 

 plies throughout the stellar system. Does 

 not this broad and stable foundation give 

 valued confidence to those, who are build- 

 ing the structure of the other sciences, the 

 structure of everyday life, the structure of 

 civilization 1 



The purpose of the American Association 

 is the advancement of science in all its 

 branches. Its scope is sufficiently broad to 

 include every subject that is studied scien- 

 tifically. Papers on the evolution of lan- 

 guage, on the functions of governments, on 

 the history of religions, if based upon the 

 relations of cause and effect, have the same 

 rights and privileges and the same welcome 

 upon our programs as papers concerning 

 the spectrum of the latest comet, the atomic 

 weight of helium or the origin of volcanoes. 



It is now quite difficult to find a subject 

 that is not being studied scientifically some- 

 where by somebody. It is this fact which 

 accounts for the phenomenal progress of 

 civilization in the past half century, and 

 especially in the last thirty years. With 

 rare exceptions, all important interests are 

 pulling together for the welfare of man- 

 kind, and their efforts are effective because 

 they are advancing over the firm founda- 

 tion of scientific method. Every branch of 



