guidance of scientific men in things material. They believed that they
could do their business best without advice of the theorists. When it
came to the conduct of business, scientific men and practical men eyed
each other with mutual distrust. As long as the scientific men remained
mere critics this distrust remained. When they came to take up the
practical problems of applied mechanics and physics and solve them
positively in a large way, they became the trusted leaders of modern
material development.

It is for you to deal with the profounder problems of human life in the
same way. It is for you to prove your right to take the lead in the
political and social and spiritual development of the country, as well
as in its mechanical and material development. To do this you must take
hold of these social problems with the same positive faith with which
your fathers took hold of the problems of applied science. To the man
who believes in his fellow men, who has faith in his country, and in
whom the love of God whom he hath not seen is but an outgrowth of a love
for his fellow men whom he hath seen, the opening years of the twentieth
century are years of unrivaled promise. We already know that a man can
learn to love God by loving his fellow men. Equally true we shall find
it that a man learns to believe in God by believing in his fellow men.

FOOTNOTE:

[6] The concluding part of a baccalaureate address to the graduating
class of Yale University, June 27, 1909.