president’s address. 
377 
undertaken when he attempts to explain the moral sense by the 
operation of an evolutionary law. * * * * At this point I leave 
my subject, for I have no desire whatever to enter the metaphysi- 
cal labyrinth which opens before me. I can only say that as 
investigators of natural history, our plain duty is to endeavor to 
ascertain, as far as possible, the exact truth as regards every 
known thing, to examine, to investigate, to compare; and yet to 
formulate no theories which we cannot establish by facts which 
are within our reach; to shrink from no examination which we 
may fairly make, to shirk no investigation of matter in whatever 
form it may present itself for fear of some result which will 
destroy a cherished theory, ever remembering that we are seek- 
ing not merely to wrest some secret from nature’s well guarded 
store, but that we are seeking after truth ; not alone for the satis- 
faction which we will undoubtedly derive from the attainment of 
knowledge, but for the good which must accrue to mankind as 
a knowledge of the universe is diffused; and as we master the 
fact that the sum of human happiness will be enlarged if we apply 
that knowledge honestly, justly and fairly to all the concerns of 
life. This, at least, is a work which we ought to be able to per- 
form, and yet it may demand of us the most difficult of human 
sacrifices, the sacrifice of self ! ” 
