THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
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from the very nature of Science that, give it time, it must correct, 
by the exercise of its own functions, any errors into which some of 
its promoters may by over-hasty conclusions chance to fall. 
And here I think it should be conceded without reserve that the 
physical investigator is bound to apply his method of research with 
the most severe and exclusive regard to the facts in question, utterly 
oblivious of any consequences that may flow from the conclusion 
vo which they lead him. Facts are God's finger pointing in the 
line of truth, and they cannot but point in that line. The investi- 
gator loses power if he wants the facts to point other than they do ; 
by that secret wish he draws a veil over his own eyes, so that the 
divine reality is but dimly known. Lord Bacon, while recognizing 
the value of a consideration of Final Causes in other relations of 
thought, was unquestionably right in refusing to recognise them at 
all while pursuing a search into the actual constitution and order of 
Nature. The modern investigator simply broadens the principle 
when in his study of Nature he is utterly blind to all notions, all 
considerations, all traditions, and sees only the teaching of the facts 
before him. His wisdom lies in loyally seizing any and every fact, 
noting every actual relation of facts with as much abandon as 
though there were nothing else in existence, and then cautiously 
framing his conclusion so as to square alone with the facts, always 
assigning to that conclusion just such permanent value as may be 
warranted by the approximate exhaustion of the field over which 
facts may be gathered, and the possibility of unknown factors of a 
similar or diverse nature some time coming to light. The mischief 
arises when men, by a process of reasoning distinct from the obser- 
vation and collocation of facts, unwittingly get out a conclusion 
disproportionate to the facts. Hypotheses are not only allowable 
but essential to the construction of unified knowledge, but fact must 
precede them, and fact must bring up the rear, and be the criterion 
of their permanence. 
But while I am prepared to say this, and while I deprecate as 
mischievous the wild, unreasoning dread which in some quarters is 
entertained of the diffusion of the Scientific Spirit, there are certain 
aspects of it on which it may be profitable to turn the critical eye. 
It is an old truism, that the best things on earth get tainted with 
our human imperfection. Anthropomorphism is not confined to 
theologies. It might even be said with a severity of truth which 
psychologists will recognize, that Science is hugely anthropomorphic. 
