164 Otto Herman : 



Herlossohii and set to music by the classical composer Abt, 

 which is familiar alike to cottage and palace, as a testimony 

 of this general harmony of feeling. 



I might, perhaps, add some fresh tints, but my feeling of 

 duty forbids me to do so. 



The fact that I have to speak in the heart of England, on 

 the occasion of a strictly scientific Congress, is decisive . 



It is an easy question to decide what direction the learning 

 of England requires me to take. England has given the 

 world three stars of the highest order. The first was 

 Bacon of Verulam, who advises us, in considering the pheno- 

 mena of Nature, to adopt the method of experience, a course 

 which amounts to the exclusion of mere speculation and 

 especially of fancy. The second was Isaac Newton, who by 

 the law of gravitation has taught us the omnipotence of the 

 laws of Nature, and has explained the equilibrium of the 

 universe, thus putting exact science in the foreground. The 

 third was Charles Darwin, who has conquered the rigidness 

 of the conception of organisms, and has explained the idea, 

 of evolution. 



The example of these three great men must cause me, as 

 well, especially on English soil, to confine myself to facts, to 

 the exclusion of sophistry, fancy, and belief in authority. 



Before, however, I undertake the development of this 

 theme, I beg to insert the following brief sketch. 



In spite of all Bacon, Newton, and Darwin did — in spite of 

 the victorioiis advance of the exact and inductive branches of 

 science — speculative theories held the day, even during the 

 nineteenth century, in the field of the migration of birds, 

 taken as a science. This lay, and lies even to-day, in the 

 nature of the phenomenon itself. The power of flight of 

 birds, of nocturnal migration, and many other unknown 

 circumstances, led people to talk of " riddles " — even of 

 "miracles." They woiüd not, and still refuse to, admit that 

 it is our knowledge which is at fault — a fact which is not 

 conducive to experiments, leading to the pronouncing of 

 judgments which were void of positive forni dati on and of any 

 actual inductive basis. 



One of the most wonderful pictures of human intellect is 

 displayed to our eyes when we learn that the great German 



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