Al'BiL 12, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



uway. The boundaries of scientitic inquiry 

 have thus been moved forward and new 

 territory has been added to the cultivated 

 domain. 



Again, let me direct your attention to 

 another feature attending the prosecution 

 of scientific research. While it is undoubt- 

 edlj- destructive of crodulitj', and is perhaps 

 but a weak allj- of faith, it is nevertheless 

 a powerful promoter of honesty. The object 

 wliich the scientific investigator sets before 

 him is to ascertain the truth. He is devoted 

 to it and pursues it with unremitting toil. 

 But this is not all. He not only seeks 

 truth, but he must be true himself. It is 

 difficult to conceive of any circumstances 

 which would induce him to play a dishonest 

 part in scientific research. He has every 

 inducement not only to aceuracj' but to 

 honesty. He may imwittinglj' blunder and 

 fall into error, but if he is untrue he is cer- 

 tain to be exposed. Xo discovery is per- 

 mitted to go unverified. It must undergo 

 the searching examination of scientific in- 

 quirj'. The investigator must submit his 

 data and must seek to have his results con- 

 firmed. There is, therefore, every induce- 

 ment for him to be absolutely truthful. This 

 condition impo.ses upon him also the habit 

 of conservatism and moderation in state- 

 ment. He is not expected to plead a cause 

 or to make the most of the occasion for 

 himself. In this regard his position is in 

 contrast with those whose profession makes 

 them the allies of faith, but whose modera- 

 tion is not always known to all men; for 

 their assertions are not brought to the 

 touchstone of revision and justification, and 

 the released word flies over the unguarded 

 wall. The habit of the scientific investi- 

 gator is to subject everj' question to the 

 scrutiny of reason and to weigh probabili- 

 ties. He obeys the injunction, " Prove all 

 things; hold fast that which is good." He 

 respects conscience, but has no use for 

 credulity. He exhibits devotion to principle. 



but dogmatism, whether in science or re- 

 ligion, has no place in his creed. He looks 

 not only upon the things which are seen, 

 but also upon the things which are unseen. 

 You may suft'er me to remind you that the 

 most noted American atheist is not a man 

 of science, while one of the forceful books 

 of modern times, ' The Unseen Universe,' 

 which aims to lay a foundation for belief 

 in a future life without the aid of inspira- 

 tion, was written bj' two distinguished phys- 

 icists. Science examines the foundations 

 of belief. It takes nothing from mere tradi- 

 tion, on authority, nor because it is an 

 inheritance from the past. It admits its 

 own limitations and the somewhat circum- 

 scribed boundaries set to the field of its 

 inquiries; but within this province it seeks 

 to ascertain only the truth. It recognizes 

 not only the promise and potency of matter, 

 but the power which makes for righteous- 

 ness. 



Turning now to some more practical mat- 

 ters, it is strongly urged that the study of 

 science should begin earlj', before the taste 

 for such study has become atrophied by too 

 excessive attention to language and mathe- 

 matics. It is a fact established by observa- 

 tion that if a student gets his first introduc- 

 tion to science only after he is well along in 

 his college course he comes to it with a 

 mental inaptitude that often produces dis- 

 couragement and precludes the possibility 

 of much satisfaction in its pursuit. The 

 procedure in scientific study, especially 

 when it includes the method of the labora- 

 tory, is so radically different from that in- 

 volved in the study of language that one 

 trained onlj^ in the latter finds himself in a 

 foreign field when he enters the former. 

 The studj- of language, considered merely 

 as the symbolism of thought, or the instru- 

 ment for its expression, is most valuable 

 and essential. You shall hear no word fi-om 

 me designed to depreciate the value of 

 linguistic study and training. It is rather 



