482 president's address. 



labor, by alluding to scientific work which lias been accomplished 

 since our last meeting. While delicacy forbids me from so doing, 

 I am equally debarred from repeating to you the brief sketch I 

 endeavored to give at a former meeting 1 of the history, and pres- 

 ent condition of Entomology in the United States. 



But it has appeared to me that a few thoughts, which have im- 

 pressed themselves on my mind, touching the future results to be 

 obtained from certain classes of facts, not yet fully developed, on 

 account of the great labor required for their proper comparison, 



hope to be able, with your kind attention, to present them in such 

 way as to be suggestive of the work yet to be done. 



It has been perhaps said, or at least it has been often thought, 

 that the first mention of the doctrine of evolution, as now ad- 

 mitted to a greater or less degree by every thinking man, is found 

 in Ecclesiastes, i, 9 :— 



" The thing that hath been is that which shall be ; and that 

 which is done is that which shall be done ; and there is no new 

 thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, 

 See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was 

 before us." 



Other references to evolutionary views in one form or another 

 occur in the writings of several philosophers of classic times, as 

 you have had recent cause to remember. 



Whether these are to be considered as an expression of a per- 

 fect truth in the very imperfect" language which was alone intelligi- 

 ble to the nation to whom this sacred book was immediately ad- 

 dressed on the one hand ; and the happy guesses of philosophers, 

 who by deep intuition had placed themselves in close sympathy 

 with the material universe, on the other hand, I shall not stop to 

 enquire. The discussion would be profitless, for modern science 

 in no way depends for its magnificent triumphs of fact and 

 thought upon any utterances of the ancients. It is the creation 

 of patient intelligent labor of the last two centuries, and its re- 

 sults can be neither confuted nor confirmed by anything that was 

 said, thought or done at an earlier period. I have merely referred 

 to these indications of doctrines of evolution to recall to your 

 minds that the two great schools of thought, which now divide 

 philosophers, have existed from very remote times. They are, 



