358 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 349. 



quire about going away I found we had 

 to pay the price of two nights in order to 

 pass one when leaving your city. So there 

 seems to be every inducement to prolong 

 ■our stay. I could not but think, as I 

 iread in the newspaper that this Associa- 

 tion had fallen upon Denver, of an anec- 

 'dote related to me a few days ago in the 

 Yellowstone, when I was told a German 

 visitor had been there and seen the gey- 

 sers, and afterwards had gone to Niagara. 

 When asked how he liked it, he said, "Oh, 

 'dat is very fine, but you shall see the gey- 

 sers, they fall oop." That is the way we 

 have ' fallen upon ' Denver. "We are all 

 wonderfully impressed by the extraordinary 

 endowments of nature in this state. It is 

 almost incredible to a visitor coming here 

 for the first time that any tract of land 

 should be so richly provided with all the 

 raw resources which man needs for the con- 

 struction of civilization. We, like you, are 

 laboring in this process of building up 

 civilization. As you have been working in 

 your state, so we work in every territory of 

 nature seeking to bring forth her hidden 

 treasures and render them available for the 

 service of mankind and for establishing a 

 higher life in humanity than has yet been. 

 It is not so in the east with us at home. 

 There civilization has been going on longer. 

 The resources which nature provides are 

 known. The work of civilization proceeds 

 there in established channels, and I felt at 

 once in coming here that the newness and 

 creative character of your work in Colorado 

 made a sympathetic atmosphere for us who 

 are striving to create what is new and get 

 from nature her unused treasures which we 

 can employ hereafter. Everything there- 

 fore speaks of sympathy and understanding 

 between the practical life of Colorado and 

 i;he scientific life of this Association. And 

 ■we are, too, nearly co-temporaries. The 

 Association was before Denver was, but not 

 foymanj years. We have, as it were, grown 



up together and have lived through the same 

 period of our country's history. Therein, 

 too, lies the power of appreciation — mutual, 

 I believe — between you and us who are here 

 playing a double role of both guests and, in 

 our meetings, of your hosts — for hosts we 

 would gladly be, inviting you to our meet- 

 ings, for we are a kind of intellectual Salva- 

 tion Army. We do not profess to do much 

 for the saving of souls as our direct work, 

 though we believe that all good work tends 

 to that end, but we do believe that we can 

 do a great deal to save brains, they being the 

 only things in nature which in being used 

 are best saved and made better. So if we 

 stimulate you to use your brains more we 

 shall have done some service, we shall have 

 done something to save your intellectual 

 life, to broaden it and make character. If 

 as a biologist I survey the realm of nature 

 and seek to make out what is the distin- 

 guishing characteristic of man, I have to 

 recognize that it is the value of the indi- 

 vidual which distinguishes the human 

 species from every other living species in 

 the world. Man alone is able to profit by 

 the superiority of the individual members 

 of his species. Animals may learn a little 

 from one another. Man alone can learn 

 much. It is owing to this peculiarity in 

 nature of the human species that science 

 exists, that civilization exists, and I believe 

 the recognition of that fact should have a 

 profound influence upon all our political 

 and social questions whenever we have in 

 mind the promotion of human welfare ; be- 

 cause, it being a true fact in nature that the 

 average civilization of a community is not 

 correspondent to the average intellectual 

 and moral calibre of its members, but very 

 nearly to the intellectual and moral calibre 

 of its best members, that fact imposes upon 

 us a special duty, that of promoting the 

 development and the education of the best 

 members in the community. And if I were 

 asked to say what in the west seemed to me 



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