Journal and proceiRdings. 45 



to me, we have inherited from the long distant past ; but as we are 

 all disposed to do some thinking on our own account, it is inevitable 

 that we should disagree respecting one or more of the positions I 

 have assumed. This, however, is a matter of small consequence; 

 the main point is that we do not fail to regard our highest moral, 

 social, political, artistic and scientific achievements as intellectual 

 developments which had their beginnings far away back in the 

 stream of time, and these, too, chiefly in that most natural of all 

 instincts, the instinct of self-preservation ; and we should value our 

 acquirements the more and not the less on this account. 



We esteem ripened fruit none the less because it retains well- 

 marked evidences of the original bud from which it sprung, and we 

 see no reason to despise an ingenious bit of mechanism on account 

 of its production from crude materials. 



That so many of our inherited proclivities bear such strong 

 resemblances to savage ways is not only a proof of what is called 

 the " Descent of Man," but they go to show how exceedingly brief 

 has been his so-called civilized condition as compared with, the 

 endurance of his primeval state. The effect of habits practiced 

 during a lifetime cannot be removed in a day, a month, or it may 

 be a year ; neither need it be expected that all traces of customs 

 and usages engendered and maintained during ages in a primitive 

 state of society can be eradicated in the course of a few centuries in 

 more advanced circumstances. 



That the time will ever come in the history of our race when 

 every tinge of the old life will be utterly removed is more than 

 doubtful, even if it were desirable — indeed such a condition is 

 inconceivable, for many of the supremest joys and pleasures of our 

 being are inseparably connected with the gratification of tastes and 

 desires engrafted upon our stock when hunting and fishing were 

 necessities of individual, as warfare was of tribal, existence. 



Our work is to modify, to refine, to elevate, to direct, and as 

 may be found necessary for the common weal, to suppress old-time 

 instincts. 



In other words, civilization should be a process of natural gtowth 

 — the result of small but steadily supplied increments to our know- 

 ledge, as a consequence of racial experiences. 



