51 



castes, orders of nobility, and reigning families, are familiar 

 illustrations of the sway of this idea ; in killing, banishing, 

 and confining criminals mankind has in all ages been defend- 

 ing itself, blindly, to be sure, but with effect, against evils 

 which incidentally flow from hereditary transmission ; but it 

 has been reserved for natural science in this generation to 

 demonstrate the universality of this principle, and its control- 

 ling influence upon the families, nations, and races of men, 

 as well as upon all lower orders of animate beings. It is fit- 

 ting that natural history should have given this demonstration 

 to the world ; for the basis of systematic natural history is 

 the idea of species, and the idea of species is itself founded 

 upon the sureness of hereditary transmission — upon the ulti- 

 mate fact that individual characteristics are inheritable. As 

 the knowledge of heredity, recently acquired by science, per- 

 meates society, it will profoundly affect social customs, public 

 legislation, and governmental action. It will throw additional 

 safeguards around the domestic relations ; enhance the nat- 

 ural interest in vigorous family stocks ; guide wisely the char- 

 itable action of the community ; give a rational basis for 

 penal legislation ; and promote both the occasional production 

 of illustrious men and the gradual improvement of the masses 

 of mankind. These moral benefits will surely flow from our 

 generation's study of heredity. 



Finally, modern science has discovered and set forth the 

 magnificent idea of the continuity of creation. It has proved 

 that the development of the universe has been a progress 

 from good to better, a progress not without reactions and 

 catastrophes, but still a benign advance toward ever higher 

 forms of life with ever greater capacities for ever finer enjoy- 

 ments. It has laid a firm foundation for man's instinctive 

 faith in his own future. From the sight and touch of what 

 the eternal past has wrought, it deduces a sure trust in what 

 the eternal future has in store. 



"And present gratitude 

 Insures the fnture's good ; 

 And for the things I see 

 I trust the things to be." 



It has thus exalted the idea of God — the greatest service 

 which can be rendered to humanity. " Each age must wor- 



