SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 1. 



that genn would have fructified had it not been 

 crushed hy ignorance and superstition." 



So wrote Humboldt at the end of the last 

 century. He must have felt, although he did 

 not say so then, that ignorance and super- 

 stition were also to be dissij)ated ia the new 

 and expanded intellectual atmosphere. The 

 passage already quoted ft-om his Tm-itings 

 shows this clearlj'. 



The establishment of the supremacy of 

 Western civilization, and the finding of a 

 New World were, after all, less important 

 than the discoverj^ which the men of both 

 hemispheres made on this side of the sea — 

 that they might become free and their own 

 masters. It was the opening of a new 

 period in human historj^. Men were awak- 

 ing fi'om the slumber of ages. Europe 

 began to emerge fi-om abject intellectual 

 slavery. In political life the traditions of 

 the age of despots were broken, and the 

 development of free institutions begun. In 

 religion a reformation was inaugurated, 

 wider in scope than the movement led by 

 Luther, which is commonly associated with 

 that name. In art, soulless and awkward 

 formalities were replaced by enthusiastic 

 culture of the ideals of classical daj's, which 

 in time grew broader, more spontaneous 

 and more inspired. In the field of letters, 

 scholastic traditions were cast aside, and 

 each nation in Europe developed a new 

 language and a new literature. In science, 

 similar scholastic and traditional usages 

 were discarded. The students who com- 

 piled uncritically and generalized upon the 

 worthless results of their own antiquarian 

 researches, gave place to the restless, skep- 

 tical, critical inquirers of modern times. 



We have just ended our celebration of 

 the discovery of America, the end of the 

 Dark Ages, the bti-th of individual freedom 

 and of proper government. We celebrated 

 at the same time the beginning of a new 

 epoch. The Mediseval Renascence was lim- 

 ited to Europe ; ours will embrace all the 



nations of the earth. It may be that this 

 should be considered the outgro'n"th and 

 fulfillment of that which marked the end 

 of the ISIiddle Ages, but whether we are at 

 the beginning of a new movement, or at the 

 culmination of an old one, the last forty 

 years have undoubtedly witnessed greater 

 changes in the spirit of men's thoughts 

 than the foiu- centuries which had gone 

 before. 



The earlier Renascence gave to man the 

 right and liberty to tliink and act as he, in 

 his own jiidgment, saw fit. The Renas- 

 cence of to-day is leading men to think, not 

 only with personal freedom, but accurately 

 and rightly. Far be it fit-om me to say that 

 I believe that mankind in general are very 

 much nearer to accurate and just stand- 

 ards of judgment than thej'^ were four hun- 

 dred years ago, but the spirit of to-day 

 favors untrammeled and searching investi- 

 gation of every question in which man is 

 concerned, a critical comparison of the re- 

 sults of such investigation, and a fi-ank in- 

 tolerance of all illogical or unsound theory 

 and application. 



This is the spirit of science — the spirit of 

 unprejudiced search for truth — and this, 

 emphatically, is the spirit of thinking men 

 of to-day in America, in every department 

 of activity. 



Who can say what is to be the part of 

 America in the future intellectual life of the 

 world ? It cannot be less important than in 

 the past, and in all likelihood the influence 

 of America will be more comi^rehensive and 

 deep-seated as the years go by. Is it not 

 possible that it may hereafter become the 

 chief of the conservative forced in civiliza- 

 tion rather than, as in the past, be exerted 

 mainly in the direction of change and re- 

 form ? 



Brain of the New World, what a task is thine, 

 To formulate the Modern — out of the peerless gran- 

 deur of the Modern, 

 Out of thyself. * * * 



