Simon Newcomb

“ You do not visit our shores to find great collections in which long centuries of humanity have given expression on canvas and in marble to their hopes, fears and aspirations. Nor do you expect institutions and buildings hoary with age. But as you feel the vigor latent in the fresh air of these expansive prairies, which has collected the products of human genius by which we are here surrounded and, I may add, brought us together—as you study the institutions which we have founded for the benefit not only of our own people but of humanity at large ”

“ But the more careful inquirer will see that the work of these men was possible only through a knowledge of laws of nature which had been gained by men whose work took precedence of theirs in logical order, and that success in invention has been measured by completeness in such knowledge. While giving all clue honor to the great inventors, let us remember that the first place is that of the great investigators whose forceful intellects opened the way to secrets previously hidden from men. ”

“ It is unique in that so many lands have delegated their choicest intellects to carry on its work. They come from the country to which our republic is indebted for a third of its territory, including the ground on which we stand; from the land which has taught us that the most scholarly devotion to the languages and learning of the cloistered past is compatible with leadership in the practicable application of modern science to the arts of life ”

“ AMONG the tendencies characteristic of the science of our day is one toward laying greater stress on questions of the beginning of things, and regarding a knowledge of the laws of development of any object of study as necessary to its complete understanding in the form in which we find it. ”

“ There is an increasing recognition of methods of research and of deduction which are common to large branches or to the whole of science. We are more and more recognizing the principle that progress in knowledge implies its reduction to a more exact form, and the expression of its ideas in language more or less mathematical. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The superficial observer, who sees the oak but forgets the acorn, might tell us that the special qualities which have produced such great results are expert scientific knowledge and rare ingenuity, directed to the application of the powers of steam and electricity. ”

“ But such reviews do not make up that general survey of science at large which is necessary to the development of our theme, and which must include the action of causes that had their origin long before our time. The movement which culminated in making the nineteenth century ever memorable in history is the outcome of a long series of causes, acting through many centuries, which are worthy of being brought into especial prominence on such an occasion as this. ”

“ It has been said that the scientific investigator is a new species of the human race. If this designation is applicable to a class defined only by its functions, then it is eminently appropriate. But the biologist may object to it on the ground that a species, or even a variety, is the product of heredity, and propagates only or mainly its own kind. The evolutionist may join hands with him on the ground that only new faculties, not new modes of activity, are to be regarded as products of evolution, but let us not stop to dispute about words. ”

“ Our inquiry into the logical order of the causes which have made our civilization what it is to-day will be facilitated by bringing to mind certain elementary considerations—ideas so familiar that setting them forth may seem like citing a body of truisms—and yet so frequently overlooked not only individually, but in their relation to each other, that the conclusion to which they lead may be lost to sight. ”

“ Your deliberation will help to demonstrate to us and to the world at large that the reign of law must supplant that of brute force in the relations of the nations, just as it has supplanted it in the relations of individuals. ”

“ In setting them forth we should avoid laying stress on those visible manifestations which, striking the eye of every beholder, are in no danger of being overlooked, and search rather for those agencies whose activities underlie the whole visible scene, but which are liable to be blotted out of sight by the very brilliancy of the results to which they have given rise. It is easy to draw attention to the wonderful qualities of the oak ”

“ Another well-known fact is that those applications of the forces of nature to the promotion of human welfare which have made our age what it is are of such comparatively recent origin that we need go back only a single century to antedate their most important features, and scarcely more than four centuries to find their beginning. It follows that the subject of our inquiry should be the commencement, not many centuries ago, of a certain new form of intellectual activity. ”

“ We have here the explanation of the well-known fact that the functions of the investigator of the laws of nature, and of the inventor who applies these laws to utilitarian purposes are rarely united in the same person. ”

“ If it seems that in neglecting such ends they were leaving undone the most important part of their work, let us remember that nature turns a forbidding face to those who pay her court with the hope of gain, and is responsive only to those suitors whose love for her is pure and undefiled. ”

“ One of these propositions is that psychical rather than material causes are those which we should regard as fundamental in directing the development of the social organism. The human intellect is the really active agent in every branch of endeavor—the primum mobile of civilization—and all those material manifestations to which our attention is so often directed are to be regarded as secondary to this first agency. If it be true that 'in the world is nothing great but man ”

“ The result was a catalogue of many hundred double stars, all before unknown, and many very close and difficult. The subject of double stars was one which seemed to belong especially to the Struve family, their observations and measurements having been at Dorpat the great work of the father, who thus became preeminent in this branch of research. His "Mensuræ Micrometricæ" is one of the standard astronomical works of the century, a book whose magnificent proportions correspond to the labor expended in its preparation. ”

“ Petersburg, which has sometimes been called the astronomical capital of the world. The work of erecting the observatory, constructing the instruments, and getting the whole established and at work, occupied the years from 1835 to 1840. On the removal of the family to the new establishment, Otto, although only a little over twenty years of age, commenced work as an assistant to his father. His first serious work was an examination of all the stars in the northern heavens, made with the great refractor, in order to detect new double stars. ”