International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1 / Philosophy and Metaphysics

by Unknown

The division of exhibits of the Universal Exposition of 1904 has looked forward to this time, when the work it has performed is to be reviewed and discussed by this distinguished body. I do not, of course, intend to convey the idea that the international congress is to inspect or criticise the exhibitions, but I do mean to say that the deliberations of this organization are contemporaneous with and share the responsibility for the accomplishments of which the exhibitions made are the visible evidences.

The great educational yield of a universal exposition comes from the intellectual more than from the mechanical processes. It is the material condition of the times. It is as well the duty of the responsible authorities to go yet further and record the thoughts and theories, the investigations, experiments, and observations of which these material things are the tangible results.

A congress of arts and science, whose membership is drawn from all educational as well as geographical zones, not only accounts for and analyzes the philosophy of conditions, but points the way for further advance along the lines consistent with demonstration. Its contribution to the hour is at once a history and a prophecy.

The extent to which the deliberations and utterances of this congress may regulate the development of society or give impulse to succeeding generations, it is impossible to estimate, but not unreasonable to anticipate. The plans of the congress matured in the minds of the best scholars; the classification of its purpose, the scope, the selection of its distinguished participants, gave to the hopes and ambitions of the management of the Exposition inspiration of a most exalted degree. At first these ambitions were—not without reason—regarded as too high. The plane upon which the congress had been inaugurated, the aim, the broad intent, seemed beyond the merits, if not beyond the capacity, of this hitherto not widely recognized intellectual centre. But the courage of the inception, the loftiness of the purpose, appealed so profoundly to the toilers for truth and the apostles of fact, that we find gathered here to-day in the heart of the new Western continent the great minds whose impress on society has rendered possible the intellectual heights to which this age has ascended and now beckon forward the students of the world to limitless possibilities.

While international congresses of literature, science, art, and industry have been accomplished by previous expositions, yet to classify and select the topics in sympathy with the classification and installation of the exhibits material is a step considerably in advance of the custom. The men who build an exposition must by temperament, if not by characteristic, be educators. They must be in sympathy with the welfare of humanity and its higher destiny. The exhibitions at this Exposition are not the haphazard gatherings of convenient material, but the outline of a plan to illustrate the productiveness of mankind at this particular time, carefully digested, thoroughly thought out, and conscientiously executed. The exhibit, therefore, in each of the departments of the classification, as well as in the groups of the different departments, are of such character, and so arranged as to reflect the best that the world can do along departmental lines, and the best that different peoples can do along group lines. The congresses accord with the exhibits, and the exhibits give expression to the congresses.

Education has been the keynote of this Exposition. Were it not for the educational idea, the acts of government providing vast sums of money for the up-building of this Exposition would have been impossible. This congress reflects one idea vastly outstripping others, and that is, in the unity of thought in the universal concert of purpose. It is the first time, I believe, that there has been an international gathering of the authorities of all the sciences, and in that respect the congress initiates and establishes the universal brotherhood of scholars.

A thought uncommunicated is of little value. An unrecorded achievement is not an asset of society. The real lasting value of this congress will consist of the printed record of its proceedings. The delivery of the addresses, reaching and appealing to, as must necessarily be the case, a very limited number of people, can be considered as only a method of reaching the lasting and perpetual good of civilization.

In just the degree that this Exposition in its various divisions shall make a record of accomplishments, and lead the way to further advance, this enterprise has reached the expectations of its contributors and the hopes of its promoters. This congress is the peak of the mountain that this Exposition has builded on the highway of progress. From its heights we contemplate the past, record the present, and gaze into the future.

This universal exposition is a world's university. The International Congress of Arts and Science constitutes the faculty; the material on exhibition are the laboratories and the museums; the students are mankind.

That in response to invitation of the splendid committee of patriotic men, to whom all praise is due for their efforts in this crowning glory of the Exposition, so eminent a gathering of the scholars and savants of the world has resulted, speaks unmistakably for the fraternity of the world, for the sympathy of its citizenship, and for the patriotism of its people.