If the one conspicuous exception
which the past century presents to this rule is not unique, we
should probably have to go back to Watt to find another.
From this view-point it is clear that the primary agent in the
movement which has elevated man to the masterful position he now
occupies is the scientific investigator. He it is whose work has
deprived plague and pestilence of their terrors, alleviated human
suffering, girdled the earth with the electric wire, bound the
continent with the iron way, and made neighbors of the most
distant nations. As the first agent which has made possible this
meeting of his representatives, let his evolution be this day our
worthy theme. As we follow the evolution of an organism by
studying the stages of its growth, so we have to show how the work
of the scientific investigator is related to the ineffectual
efforts of his predecessors.
In our time we think of the process of development in nature as
one going continuously forward through the combination of the
opposite processes of evolution and dissolution. The tendency of
our thought has been in the direction of banishing cataclysms to
the theological limbo, and viewing Nature as a sleepless plodder,
endowed with infinite patience, waiting through long ages for
results.
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