618 THE CONTROL OF LIFE: 



Bacchus, and Mammon, if even they did not establish peace 

 and chain up the dogs of war for ever." This was 1907- 

 1910. 



In the cases where the issue is relatively clear we have 

 of course made great progress. We think of malaria and 

 Malta fever, of diphtheria and plague, and many other 

 diseases now coming under control. Not many years ago 

 a number of religious and worthy Boer farmers uncon- 

 sciously impious refused to join with an effective Anti- 

 Locust League which depended for success on concerted 

 action; they gave for their reason that it was attempting 

 to stay the hand of God. But already this sounds like an- 

 cient history. Not in regard to diseases and pests alone, but 

 in regard to depressing environment, ugliness, and dirt; in 

 regard to dangerous and deteriorative occupations; in regard 

 to poverty and unemployment, and, in short, all manner of 

 objective evils, we have a determination rapidly growing 

 stronger in our midst to get at the facts, to understand the 

 operative factors, and to put brains into the task of better- 

 ment. Knowledge is foresight, and foresight is power. 

 Science is for the ameloriation and control, as well as for the 

 enlightenment of life. To have this conviction strongly is 

 surely to show no profane depreciation of the things of the 

 spirit which are beyond the scientific universe of discourse. 



It is the complaint of most of us that scientific efforts 

 for the alleviation of misery and the scattering of gratuitous 

 shadows move so very slowly. On the other hand, there is 

 some reason to be afraid of movements that make people 

 more comfortable without making them more ambitious in 

 the quest for the True, the Beautiful, and the Good ; and of 

 reforms which save guilty people from the consequences of 

 sin, selfishness, and sloth. 



