THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
309 
There can be no question but that Physical Science occupies a 
position before the publico mind, and in relation to the manifold 
aspects of our modern civilization, beyond all parallel in human 
history j and, moreover, that it has, by its improved methods of 
research, and the results issuing therefrom, given a tone to the 
general intellect which not only affects the current of thought 
flowing in the direction of purely physical investigation, but also 
modifies the entire habit of cultivated thought. Anyone familiar 
with the literature of the last few centuries will see, on comparing 
what then was the prevailing spirit with that which has resulted 
from the recent developments of Science, that there has been 
wrought a revolution in the conception of the universe, and in the 
ordinary attitude and temper of the educated classes, more thorough, 
wide-reaching, and momentous than can be affirmed of any historic 
period. Although the social and political changes of the same 
period may strike the uninstructed as being more radical and com- 
plicated, yet in reality they are but surface modifications springing 
from causes more subtle than themselves. External relations in 
society are but expressions of deeper realities ; namely, mental 
moods and wider knowledge ; and the most influential, and, in the 
long run, most lasting, mood is that which is generated by the 
fundamental view men take of the order of Nature, and their 
method of compelling her to reveal her secrets, and lay her 
treasures at their feet. 
One thing is very clear : to the most cursory observer there are 
manifold indications of the prevalence of scientific studies. It is 
well known that, exclusive of amateurs, who have felt in some 
measure the great inspiration, the number of men who, from pure 
love of truth and eagerness to penetrate far into the secrets of 
Nature, and, if possible, gaze on the wondrous unity which it is 
believed runs through all her changes, devote the best of their 
rare gifts to scientific investigation is now in every civilized 
country legion as compared with the time when Kepler, Newton, 
and Descartes endeavoured, each in his own way, to draw aside 
the veil which for ages had covered her more intricate movements. 
Instead of the tardy and scanty interchange of ideas by means of 
private correspondence in the Latin tongue, or a little later on in 
the transactions of one or two germinal societies, the teeming 
press, itself the creation of Science, at once brings thought into 
free communion with thought, and places the well-verified ob- 
