58 



Dr. David Starr Jordan: Mr. Toastmaster and President, Members 

 of the Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a pretty hard thing to re- 

 spond, impromptu, to all that. I only hope there is some of it that is not 

 true. It is a very great pleasure to me to get back here, and yet that 

 pleasure is not unmixed with a certain kind of pain. I was just remark- 

 ing to Dr. Coulter that m the "fierce democracy" of this Indiana Academy 

 "there was a Brutus once who would have brooked the eternal devil to 

 take his seat in Rome" as easily as he would have sat for dinner in a dress- 

 suit. But to see this "fierce democracy" in the brook at Brookville — it 

 gives me a certain sense of pain. (Laughter.) And speaking of Brutus 

 calls to my mind Marc Anthony, and I remember an occasion when a gen- 

 tleman was called upon to speak, and he had only one speech which he 

 said over and over, and just before going in he asked if anyone could give 

 him the address of Marc Anthony. A friend said, "You know Anthony's 

 style of life and the people he associated with; I should think his address 

 would be at the same old place." (Laughter.) 



I saw a statement not long ago by Henry Fairfield Osborn, that he 

 did not think it possible for an American University to produce a Darwin, 

 and the reasons he gave were that first, he — that is, the student nowa- 

 days — did not have to contend in his early life with something that was 

 distasteful to him, as Darwin did; second, scientific men do not have the 

 appreciation here that scientific men do in England ; and third, that the 

 scientific men of this country do not have the leisure to become such as 

 Darwin was. It does not seem to me that these reasons are very good. 

 I do not think, perhaps Darwin did not think, that any appreciable part 

 of his greatness was due to the work in the University which he said was 

 incredibly dull, and which led him to feel that he would never read a 

 book on a certain subject afterwards. And as for appreciation in this 

 country, you have just heard how scientific men are appreciated in Indi- 

 ana, and it is even so everywhere we go. And so we have this kind of 

 treatment, in America, whereas Darwin was named "gas" by his fellow- 

 students, because he confined himself more or less to chemical experi- 

 ments. And as for leisure, I know a great many scientific men of leisure 

 who have never made any pretense to being Darwins on that account. It 

 seems to me that Darwin was first made by heredity. There will never 

 be another ; you cannot get a man of high scientific rank and quality unless 

 heredity starts the thing. You have to get the right kind of stock. There 

 is no reason why the right kind of stock should not be found in Indiana, 



