THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 375 



Thus expressing clearly the view that the greatest beings that have 

 been upon earth are products of the force of nature. 



The pursuit of knowledge of any kind has a levelling tendency. 

 It was by no accident that the phrase, republic of letters, was coined. 

 In literature there is no king. There are no more democratic bodies 

 than companies of learners, and the capacity to appreciate any given 

 book, puts at least for a time, the peasant on the same platform with 

 the prince. In the department of physical science, in particular, a 

 man's standing depends completely on his merit. It affords a very 

 good example of the carrying out of the democratic maxim : 



La carriere onverte aux talens. 

 The tools to him that can use them. 



More than this, the very spirit of investigation fostered by the 

 study of the physical sciences is fatal to respect for any authority 

 based on no real claim. When men of science take to politics they 

 generally show decided democratic leanings. Again, the improve- 

 ments in industrial processes, the labour-saving inventions, the many 

 contrivances for increasing the control of man over nature which have 

 resulted from the discoveries of men of science, have linked them, in 

 an intimate way, with the masses of mankind. They are in fact the 

 high priests of industrialism, which is always democratic. 



And this leads me to remark that the cultivation of the physical 

 sciences has been favourable to democracy in another way. It has 

 resulted in the building up of a great learned class independent of 

 the court, the nobility, and the clergy, and without any class interests 

 or class organization that can be inimical to the well-being of the 

 state. The importance of this has perhaps not been sufficiently 

 noticed, if noticed at all. 



It remains now to still further remark upon the influence of the 

 scientific spirit upon literature. It has, indeed, affected every branch 

 of it. I have already said that the modern philosophical method of 

 writing history had its origin in the eighteenth century. Since then, 

 the scientific method has demolished many a false historical fabric, 

 and a beginning has been made in the science of comparative politics. 



We have ceased to believe in Romulus and the she-wolf that 

 suckled him ; all early Roman history has been re-written ; we are 

 doubtful whether there was a Homer ; William Tell's splitting of the 

 apple with his arrow has been shown to be a myth. The pervading 

 scepticism of the scientific method has caused almost all statements 



