THE EVOLUTION OF SCIENCE. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE VASSAK 

 BROTHERS INSTITUTE, 



OCTOBER 7, 1884. 



BY LeROY C. COOLEY, Ph.D., PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE. 



Members of the Institute, Ladies and Gentlemen : In 

 discharging the duties of office, it is my privilege this 

 evening to inaugurate the work of the fourth year of the 

 Vassar Brothers Institute. The task is not a little diffi- 

 cult on account of the wide scope of the Institute, which 

 includes subjects so broad and so distinct as literature, 

 the fine arts, and science. I have felt some difficulty 

 also arising from the fact that, by a law of the Institute, 

 literature, art, and science, must each, through the chair- 

 man of its respective section, speak to you in the near 

 future for itself. It has not been easy to decide just 

 what line of thought I might with propriety ask you to 

 pursue with me on this anniversary occasion. And it is 

 not without considerable solicitude, therefore, that I pro- 

 ceed to offer some thoughts in regard to the very ancient 

 history — I may say the birth — of literature, art, and 

 science, confining myself, however, chiefly to the last. 



But, first, let me call attention to the vital connection 

 which at present exists between these departments of hu- 

 man knowledge and the civilization of the world. 



Literature, art, and science, on the one hand, the po- 

 litical, social, and religious condition of a people, on the 

 other, hold a mutual and most intimate relation. The 

 first represent the last as herbage represents the soil 

 which produces it ; the last depend upon the first as the 



