Dr. Gregory's Commencement Address

The addres3 of Rev. J. M. Gregory LL. D., at the recent commencement jf the University of Michigan waa idmirable in tone aud sentiment, and jontained much which those who did not hear woulrl regard it as a privilege to read. His subject was ihe "Sciences nd Arts of the Hineteenth Century," and he commenced the addiess by q uoting the rtmark of Víctor Hugo, iu which he consoled tiis chagrín for the result at Waterloo: "Tüe great man must disappear that the great century muy come in." And, indeed, the great century was then on its march- the century in which the man of blood must yield to the man of brains- in which the victories of muskets and cannon must pale before those of ïnicroscopes and crucibles- in which the uiastery of mind over matter should succeed the mastery of trampled territorries by conquering herots and embattled hosts. To forecast the phenoniena and forces of future history, we have but to notice where the human brain is tending. The ruling biains of the olden time made military glory their object and political power ttieir end, and the earth became a battlefield. In our century the best braius are in the scboois and laboratories, in milis aud üelds, in the arts, Bciences and industries which make the world a workshop and a school arouud which the political and moral power of the world revolves. We cali this the century of progress, and the current talk of the street, ever, is loaded with. words which imply movemeut in advance. Butprogress is a result and not a cause; motion, not force. We look lo the movement, however, to ascerain the furces which cause it; we penétrate the progress to discover the power which produces and guides it. That power is revealed in the one word "Science." Her achievments excetd all the glories of the past- achievments in knowledge, in discovery, in arts- so much of which even the splendor of ancient genius had left to our times. Inquiry for the eauses or instrumeuis of results so grand as those which the cenlury has achieved concedes nothing to the superiority of its humanity. But something is due to the inward spiritual foroes whicti have controlled scientitic inquiry. Science made an advance wheii she came to recognize the uniformity and univer sality of natural laws; yet farlher when she came to reverence facts, not as chance happenings, but as the effect of some adequate cause; and still ther wheu sne carne to in-iist on the modern metliod of veriflcation, or de mand that the theory must be verined as well as the t'acta. ïo these may be added all the instruments and agencies which have giveu keeuuess to the tenses and increased power of observation. The higher mathematics have played an important part; and the diftusion of popular education has enabled genius to work with zeal and effect upon appreciating and applaudiDg audience. Aud learning's enfranchisment has been the coronation of the people,- their emergence from the low and brutish coudiüon of the niiddle aud lower ages iuto recognized mauhood. The age of the people and the age of science are idenlical. Turning from the instruments of progress to the outcome, how shall we describe the galaxy of light which blazes upon us'i It requires a library rather than a lecture. Compare the attainments of the most learued of an cient astronoraers witb the discoveries of Herrchell; glance at the progress of mathematical science; place the alcliemy of the olden time by the cheraistry of the present There is no form of matter discovered or of force in exertion, whose pheuomena and movement are not held to be susceptible of solution by half a dozen sciences. The grandeur of the subject is better illustrated, perliaps, by taking a narrower view. Take theory of force, the late theory being that it is eternal, and that a single impulse cannot be destroyed. The orator, after sume illustratiuiis showing the source whence force is drawn, where it hides itself, and eludes oúr search in the earth, and in the ocean of tire and flaaie which rolls over our heads, and tracing it to what science calis the correllation, or transformation of forces, said : Of this traubformation the electiic light is a notable example. Out of the eugine, magnetand electriccurrents come the bright light which we uo w use so geu eraily. Nature's great household is a maguificent masquerade in which, under myriad forma, force is filling scieuce with a thousand surprises. It is changing the lifeless brown earth into green growttis, tossing into the sky millions of tons of water, causing the lightning's flash and the voicanic flres; everywhere is unresisting, indestructatle force. Our scieuce of force does not end here. There is another chapler which tells of the mode of existcnce, and t hen there is thecrowning chapter, ob the practical omnipotence of the molecular forces - a power greater than that of the avalanche, volcano, or earthquake. Such is one of the nineteenth century Sciences, but it is not the most wonderful one. Chemistry and bioloxy would have told us even gre;iter marveis; astrononiy and history would have furnished novel and grand facts, while the modern arts, agricultura, the fabrics of the loom, architecture, or auy one of the family of arts summoned into existence by modern science, would have been well worthy of our attention. Two thoughts, or facts, emerge from the subject of sublime interest. On the high summit of nis ever rising and expanüing science stands man, the science maker. The thinker is ever greater than nis thought. The reflex of every great discovery is the great ness of the soul that makes it. The problem of our human i ty, or of man s nature and destiny, instead of being soluble, grows more and more difficult. Eyery step in science taken makes wider the gulf between him and the animáis below him. And miud rémains the lost, inscrutible problem of science, furuishing with each new so lution new torces to be studied - a higher mind standing above and gazing down upon the pnblem solved - a thxnker higher than lus thought. On the outer view of our expanding knowledge passes in grnnl majesty the primal, eternal, all-suffieient torce and intelligence which we cali God. A.ud why not God V If progression enlarges the known area of second causes, does it not make grander and more necessavy the power and wisdom of the Firt Cause 'i Just as eyery new stretch in the diameter of a circle aclds three times as much of a border line to (eel the touch of outerthings. It is the logical sweep of a grand and awiuYrednctio ad absurdam which huts us up to the idea of' an intelligent Creator and moral governor As with Elijah, not in the mighty rushiug wind, nor in the earthquake play of giant torces- uot even the evergiving Ore force of the univerfe, have we found God, so much as in the small, yet authoritative force, and unquestionable voice of reason, the whisper of the Soul. Here he is perpetually proclaimed. Why rob conscience of lts grandest need, its last and higUest conclusión? Deep unto deep calis out in its quest for the Infinite source of all, and instead of tho unnecossary hypothesis, God is the one postúlate which, being granted, makes rational and clear all the rest. As the last problem of science is man, so the last conclusión of science is God . "