80 TRANSACTIONS OR RHE TEXAS ACADEMY OR SCIENCE. 
generation of striving, feeling beings, whose offspring we are, we, heirs of 
all that has been, stand now here, this present moment, in awe-inspiring 
isolation, alone alive on this earth, in the immensity of star-lit space, in 
the infinity of lapsing time—sole sentient links between what was ever 
done here before and what shall ever be done hereafter. On fidelity to 
onr vital, to our human, trust, the past has built with never-flagging 
zeal—and with hopeful confidence the future is depending on it for fur¬ 
ther fulfillment. 
