INTRODUCTION 3 



of us all — rose up in remonstrance and put bar- 

 riers in the way of a candid reception of the new 

 interpretations. But still, with all his foibles, 

 man, at least man of the better sort, proclaims 

 adhesion to the ancient admonition, " Know thy- 

 self," and ultimately he strives to be loyal to the 

 intellectual precedence he assigns himself. It is 

 his to know the truth. Those of scientific trend 

 early found occasion to call into fresh activity 

 the maxim that it is better to accept the truth 

 than to think of ourselves more highly than we 

 ought to think. Whatever rufflings of our fond 

 sense of humanistic caste were felt from the new 

 interpretations in those first days of disturbed 

 equanimity, we soon came to find complacency 

 in the new place assigned us at the head of a 

 multitudinous kin, the place of leadership in the 

 van of a great procession of ascending tribes 

 striving for supreme fitness. 



But the days of disturbed tranquillity, for us 

 of the scientific household at least, soon passed 

 away; and, if they linger with any still, it can only 

 be among those outside the wide limits of this 

 Association. We are yet far from knowing the 

 whole truth, but we are tranquil in the search for 

 it, welcome or unwelcome as it may prove at first 

 to be. 



In the later decades of this memorable half 

 century, the tribute of our membership, indi- 

 vidual and collective, has lain in attempts to 

 extend, to amend, to qualify, and to. apply the 



