THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
333 
no question but that, making all proper deductions because of the 
presence of an emotional element, Science does reveal the physical 
conditions of a more perfect form of personal and social life ; and 
very sanguine expectations of the future of the world may, there- 
fore, be reasonably entertained in proportion as these conditions 
become known to private individuals and public bodies. It is 
quite understandable how the golden age should be identified with 
a wide diffusion of scientific knowledge. But even this just con- 
viction may so utterly absorb our attention and arouse its corre- 
sponding emotion as to prevent our taking an all-round view of the 
conditions on which the rearing of a stable fabric of social welfare 
must really rest. We can easily see how the immediate self- 
interest which is so strong and operative in men should lead them, 
when a new fact of Science is brought out, to turn it at once to the 
gains of commerce, and through that selfish channel to the material 
good of the world. But Keflection, calm and unbeclouded by a 
one-sided enthusiasm, will tell us that both individual and public 
welfare, if they are to be built up into noblest forms and on most 
indestructible basis, require the constant operation of other motives 
than those indicated by the terms " gain " and " advantage," the 
presence of other realities than the material conquests of Science. 
I will venture to affirm, and I appeal to the history of persons and 
communities in justification of the truth, that strict, undeviating 
justice, uncontaminated moral purity, kindness and genuine brotherly 
regard for men as fellow-men, have as much, and I will even say 
more, to do with the truest individual and public well-being than 
a knowledge of the physical laws of Nature. Knowledge of these 
laws may mean power to render more effective selfish, unjust, and 
impure purposes. Notwithstanding all that Buckle has said about 
the intellectual element, I hold that the secret of the course of 
human life lies in the moral disposition. It determines the direc- 
tion and end for which knowledge shall be used, and the direction 
and end for which knowledge is used decide whether the mass of 
men share as they ought in the fruits of discovery, and also whether 
the physical aspects of life are subservient to the development of 
the purest and noblest form of manhood. Any sanguine expecta- 
tion of widespread, enduring good from physical discoveries is 
justifiable only in so far as corresponding attention is given to the 
diffusion of the other most vital elements of human happiness. 
In bringing these remarks to a close, I must say a word or two more 
VOL. VIII y 
