MORRISON I ADDRESS. 
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too little educated to be conscious of their own intellectual 
and moral defects. 
But we find for the most part the student of natural 
science humble in his estimate of his own position, devoted 
to his work, pursuing it from no mercenary motive, but 
from sheer love of it ; content to labour obscurely, it may be, 
in some bye- way of science ; content if his labours, combined 
with those of many others working on the same lines, can 
advance his favourite science in some direction, and well 
knowing that his labours will be appreciated, if at all, by a 
narrow circle of fellow-workers, that to few is it given to 
make brilliant discoveries. It is this spirit of humility, of 
self-abnegation, of searching for truth for its own sake — the 
spirit of the highest type of the old Greek philosophy, which 
makes the biographies of, and the personal converse with, 
men of eminence in science so attractive ; it is, no doubt 
with many exceptions, the trait which has struck myself in 
what intercourse I have had with scientific men of various 
degrees of fame. I think, too, that among them there exists, 
more commonly than among other men, a real, unfeigned, 
generous appreciation of the work and discoveries of others. 
I need not speak of the many material advantages which 
science has gained for man, in the production of wealth, in 
the improvement of communications between nation and 
nation, in the promotion of comfort and health. But I 
would say one word as to its influence on religious contro- 
versy. Looking back on the past, no cause of human suffer- 
ing has perhaps been so efficacious as the disputes of men 
on matters of dogmatic theology. Hardly the ambition of 
conquerors has caused more deaths and more misery. But 
with the rise of the modern philosophy of the study of the 
laws of nature, and as a direct consequence of it, the 
virulence of religious controversy has abated. A religious 
war has become an impossibility, except between half bar- 
