Excerpt from The Finding of True Facts: Being an Inaugural Address, Delivered at the First Meeting of the Association, on the 11th January, 1859
It is not given to man, in following oat any branch of natural science, to draw the line of theoretical completeness, and to say to the searcher after truth: - "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." It is, on the other hand, one of the happiest results of true science, that it raises the perpetual wish for fresh inquiry. The completest theories are most easily shaped when there is the least knowledge. Philosophical systems are not difficult to build up, when you have only a few facts to account for, and are not in much fear of (hers being thrust in your way which may not harmonize with your system. In old times, there were "Philosophers" enough, in this sense; and there was no lack of systems and schools, - each of which had followers who denounced the rudeness of every daring intruder, and found that by far the most convenient method to answer the questioner was by the curled lip and self-sufficient sneer. Modern times, and even our own days, abound in such philosophers, quite as much as the days when the Porch and the Grove were frequented at Athens. But the happy difference is this: - that these philosophers cannot now get the exclusive hearing; but, however wedded individuals may be to any darling theory, and however jealous a self-constituted coterie may be of intruders upon ground which they would fain hold appropriated as their own domain, the door is now open to all, to seek truth and pursue it, and to question Nature and grapple with her secrets: - and theories, however cherished, and jealousies, however narrow, must, in the end, fall before the accumulated light brought to bear by persevering searchers.
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