New-York tribune., 1910-06-08
THE WORLDS
DEVELOPMENT
Analogies of History Set Forth by
MIR. Roosevelt in Romanes Lecture.
ADVANCE IN ETHICAL STANDARDS
Precepts Laid Down for the Conduct of Nations-Ex
President Refers to Abuses in the Body Polite

iCSlOCllI NOlSAC ~ A.
The Romanes lecture delivered at Ok
ford University yesterday by ex-Presi-
dent Roosevelt follows:
An American who in response to such ar
Invitation as / have received speaks in this
university of ancient renown cannot but feel
with peculiar vividness the interest and
charm OF his surroundings, fraught as they
are with a thousand associations. Your
great universities and all the memories
that make them great are living realities
in the minds of scores of thousands of men
who have never seen them and who dwell
across the seas in other lands. Moreover
these associations are no stronger in the
men of English stock than in those VINO
are not. My people have been for eight
generations in America; but in one thinS
am like the Americans of tomorrow
rather than like many of the Americans OF
to-day, for have in my veins the blood of
men who came from many different Euro
pean races The ethnic makeup of our peo-
pie is slowly changing. so that constantly
the race tends to become more and more
akin to that of those Americans who. like
myself. ire of the old stock. but not mainly
goes by mutual respect. understanding and
sympathy among the English speaking peo-
pies grow greater and not less. Any of my
ancestors. Hollander or Huguenot, Scotch
man or Irishman. who had come TO Oxford
in 'the spacious days of great Elizabeth
would have felt far more alien than ], their
descendant now feel Common heirship III
the things of the spirit makes a closer bond
l,n nf
body.
COMPARISONS of Past and Present.
More than ever before in the worlds his
tory we of to-day seek to penetrate the
causes of the mysteries that surround not
only mankind but all life, both in the pres
ent and the past We search, we peer, w
see things dimly; here and there we get u
raw of clear vision as we look before and
after. We study the tremendous process
sion of the ages, from the immemOrial past
when in 'cramp elf and saurisn forms thl
creative forces "swathed their too much
power" down to the yesterday, few score
thousand years distant only, when the his
tory of man became the Overwhelming fact
in the history of life on this planet; and
studying we see strange analogies in the
phenomena of life and death, of birth
growth and change. between those physical
groups of animal life which we designate
as species. forms, races, and the highly
complex and composite entities which rise
before our minds when we speak of nations
and civilizations.
The Advance of Science.
It is this study which has given science
its present day prominence. In the world
Of intellect doubtless the most marked feat
ures in the history of the past century have
been the extraordinary advances in scien-
tifc knowledge and investigation and in the
position held by the men of science with
reference to those engaged in other pursuits
| am not now speaking of applied science
of the science, for instance, which, having
revolutionized transportation on the eartl
and the water. is now on the brink of car
rving il into the air: of the science that
finds its expression in such extraordinary
achievements as the telephone and the tele-
graph : of the sciences which have so ac-
CELEBRATED the velocity of movement in So
cial and industrial cOnditions-for the
changes in the mechanical appliances OF
ordinary life during the last three genera
tions have been greater than in all the pre-
ceding generations since history dawned. 1
speak of the science which has no more dl-
rect bearing upon the affairs Of our every
dav life than literature or music, painting
or sculpture poetry or hiStory. y hundred
years ago the ordinary man of cultivation
had to know something of these last sub
iects but the probabilities were rather
against his having any but the most super
fetal scientific knowledge. At present all
this has changed, thanks to the. interest
taken in scientific discoveries, the large cir
-talation Of scientific books and the rapidity
with which ideas originating among stu
dents OF the most advanced and abstruse
sciences become at least partially, domi-
ciled in the popular mind.
The Tendency Toward Exactness.
Another feature of the change, OF the
growth in the position of science in the
eyes of every one and of the greatly in
creased respect naturally resulting for sci
entific methods. has been a certain tendency
among scientific students to encroach on
other fields This is particularly true of
the field of historical study Not only
have scientific men insisted upon the neces-
sity of considering the history Of man, es-
pecially in its early stages. in connection
with what biology shows to be the history
of life. but furthermore. there has arisen
demand that history shall itself be treated
as a science Both positions are in their
essence right. but as regards each position
the more arrogant among the invaders OF
the new realm of knowledge take an atti.
tude to which it is not necessary to assent.
As regards the latter of the two positions,
that which would treat history henceforth
merely as one branch of scientific study,
we must of course cordially agree that ac-
curacy in recording facts and appreciation
Of their relative worth and interrelationShip
are just as necessary in historical study as
I'm any other kind of study. The fact that
a book. though interesting. is untrue OF
course removes it at once from the category
OF history however much IL may still de-
serve to retain a place in the always de-
sirable group OF volumes which deal with
entertaining fiction. But the converse also
holds. at least to the extent of permitting
us to insist upon what would seem to be toe
elementary fact that book which is writ
ten TO be read should be readable This
rather obvious truth seems to have been
forgotten by some of the more jealous sci
entifc historian, who apparently hold that
the worth of an historical book is directly
in proportion to the impossibility of reading
it, save a painful duty.
Literary Side of History.
Now ] am willing that history shall be
treated as a branch of science but only on
condition that II also remains a branch OF
literature; and, furthermore / believe that
as the field of science encroaches on the
field of literature, there should be corre-
spending encroachment of literature upon
science; and I hold that one of the great
needs, which can only be met by very able