THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 379 



~No one who narrowly scrutinizes the intellectual influences of our 

 own clay can fail to see that that of science is one of the most iinpor. 

 tant. One scientific speculation, that of Charles Darwin on the 

 origin of species, has within less than a quarter of a century com- 

 pletely revolutionized the world of thought. The frequency with 

 which such words and phrases as, development, evolution, survival of 

 the fittest, struggle for existence, etc., are now used in our newspapers 

 and in ordinary conversation, is perhaps the most striking proof of 

 the extent to which the world generally has been unconsciously 

 influenced by him. Nearly all the leading scientific men of the age 

 are Darwinians ; the only exceptions are a few of the older men who 

 still keep their heads above the advancing tide. This theory seems 

 to strike at the belief in personal immortality and the other founda- 

 tions of morals and religion ; and some writers, notably Mr. Gold win 

 Smith, have given expression to the opinion that a day of moral un- 

 settlement and consequent deterioration of hunan conduct is approach- 

 ing. They would reecho what Tennyson has expressed in In 



Memoriam. 



I trust I have not wasted breath : 



I think we are not wholly brain, 



Magnetic mockeries ; not in vain, 

 Like Paul with beasts, I fought with death. 



Not only cunning casts in clay : 



Let science prove we are, and then 



What matters science unto men, 

 At least to me ? I would not stay. 



Let him, the wiser man who springs 



Hereafter, up from childhood shape 



His action like the greater ape, 

 But 1 was born to other things. 



Such lamentations appear to have little effect upon the advance of 

 •evolutionist views. Like some necromancer whose spells have evoked 

 a spirit which he cannot lay, the activity of the human intellect has 

 developed a system of beliefs with regard to the material universe that 

 seems to threaten the very foundations of society, and we can do 

 nothing but look on. Yet I, for one, have no serious apprehensions. 



I believe 



That somehow good 

 Will be the final goal of ill. 



The presence of the religious and moral elements in man is at least 

 as much a fact as the links of resemblance that establish a relation 



