Congress. Surely, whatever a multitude and diversity of minds can in a few days do for the promotion of knowledge, may be done here.
But it is not proposed to leave the work of the Congress to what would seem like chances and disorder, good as the result might be; nor yet to the personal influences by which we may all be made fitter for work, though these may be very potent. In the stir and controversy of meetings such as we shall have, there can not fail to be useful emulation; by the examples that will appear of success in research, many will be moved to more enthusiasm, many to more keen study of the truth; our range of work will be made wider, and we shall gain that greater interest in each other's views and that clearer apprehension of them which are always attained by personal acquaintance and by memories of association in pleasure as well as in work. But as it will not be left to chance, so neither will sentiment have to fulfill the chief duties of the Congress.
Following the good example of our predecessors, certain subjects have been selected which will be chiefly though not exclusively discussed, and the discussions are to be in the sections into which we shall soon divide.
Of these subjects it would not be for me to speak even if I were competent to do so; unless I may say that they are so numerous and complete that together with the opening addresses of the presidents of sections they leave me nothing but such generalities as may seem commonplace. They have been selected, after the custom of former meetings, from the most stirring and practical questions of the day; they are those which must occupy men's minds, and on which there is at this time most reason to expect progress, or even a just decision, from very wide discussion. They will be discussed by those most learned in them, and in many instances by those who have spent months or years in studying them, and who now offer their work for criticism and judgment.
I will only observe that the subjects selected in every section involve questions in the solution of which all the varieties of mind and knowledge of which I have spoken may find their use. For there are questions, not only on many subjects, but in all stages of progress toward settlement. In some the chief need seems to be the collection of facts well observed by many persons. I say by many, not only because many facts are wanted, but because in all difficult research it is well that each apparent fact should be observed by many; for things are not what they appear to each one mind. In that which each man believes that he observes, there is something of himself; and for certainty, even on matters of fact, we often need the agreement of many minds, that the personal element of each may be counteracted. And much more is this necessary in the consideration of the many questions which are to be decided by discussing the several values of admitted facts and of probabilities, and of the conclusions drawn from them.
