law of nation and the law of nations.  Thus we find that the idea of the just, and of what is right from man to man, is something which is found everywhere; and as that develops culture develops; but the mere just alone does not satisfy the human heart; the man who merely metes out to his fellow that which the tribal law, or the law of the land, requires of him, certainly is not up to the ideal of any man or woman in this assembly or in this city.

There is something beyond that, and what is that?  We find that it rests in the idea of the good—­that which is often brought forward in the beautiful forms of religion, which tells man that above justice there is something greater and nobler than mere ethics or morality—­the mere right and wrong—­the mere giving what is due.  It is not enough to do that; there must be a giving of more than is due; because the idea of the good transcends the present life—­it passes into the future life of the species; and it is only through going above what is needed to-day that we may endow our posterity with something greater than we ourselves possess.  It is the idea of the good, therefore, which lifts that which is merely just into a higher—­into, I might say, an immortal sphere of activity.  It has always had an intense attraction for noble souls, which history shows us; and it is not to be supposed that that attraction will ever diminish; it will ever increase, although its forms may change; and finally, along with this betterment of the emotions, and of the sense of justice—­of right and of ethics and of aesthetics—­we find the constant effort and desire of all mankind, in all stages of culture, to find out what is true, as distinct from that which is not true.  You will not be mistaken if you seek for this in the soul of the rudest savage; he, too, likes to know the truth.  The methods by which he arrives at it, or seeks to arrive at it, are widely different from those which you have been taught.  Nevertheless, the logical force of his mind; the methods of thought that he has; the laws that govern his intelligence, are exactly the same as yours:  and it is only with your enlightenment you have gained more and more acquaintance with the methods.  You know something about the great discovery which has advanced all modern science from its mediaeval condition to that of the present—­of the application of the inductive system of science and thought; and you know that it is by constant and close mathematical study of analogy—­of probability—­that we exclude error little by little from our observations—­we improve more and more our instruments of precision—­we count out the errors of our observation; and we are constantly seeking those laws which are not transient and ephemeral only, but which are eternal and immortal.  Upon those laws, finally, must rest all our real, certain knowledge; and it is the endeavor of the anthropologist to apply those laws to man and his development; and such, indeed, is the recognized and highest mission