hat govern his
intelligence, are exactly the same as yours: and it is only with your
enlightenment you have gained more and more acquaintance with the
methods. You know something about the great discovery which has
advanced all modern science from its mediaeval condition to that of the
present--of the application of the inductive system of science and
thought; and you know that it is by constant and close mathematical
study of analogy--of probability--that we exclude error little by
little from our observations--we improve more and more our instruments
of precision--we count out the errors of our observation; and we are
constantly seeking those laws which are not transient and ephemeral
only, but which are eternal and immortal. Upon those laws, finally,
must rest all our real, certain knowledge; and it is the endeavor of
the anthropologist to apply those laws to man and his development; and
such, indeed, is the recognized and highest mission of that science.
We thus find that the idea of truth is at the summit of this scale
which I have placed before you--not separated from it. It interprets
every one of the ideas and justifies them and qualifies them and lifts
them up into their highest usefulness. Chevalier Bunsen, in describing
what he thought would be the highest condition of human enlightenment,
said, "It will be when the good will be the true and the true will be
the good;" and he might have extended that further and said, when both
those ideas were the inspiring motives of all these five great ideas
which I have stated are at the basis of the culture of every
individual and are also at the basis of the culture of the race and of
the nation.

This, therefore, will serve as a sketch of the milestones of human
progress. The way has been long and painful; the results have been far
from satisfactory; and yet they have been enormous and wonderful, when
we compare them now with what our ancestors were when history began.
We can conclude, however, from looking back on this thorny and upward
path, that it is still going to ascend; we do not know it for certain;
progress may cease, through some unknown law, now and here; but if
there is anything that we can derive from the lesson of the past--if
we can project into the future any of the facts which history shows us
are our own now--it guides us forward to a firm belief that the
hereafter will have in its breast greater treasures for humanity,
greater glories for posterity