532 



ZOOLOGY 



Failure and 

 success 



Socializa- 

 tion 



mands attention with an authority rising above that of 

 legislatures. The scientific man is the modern prophet, 

 bearing a message from on high, - - truly such, with 

 little metaphor. When Pasteur revealed the connection 

 between wound fever and bacteria, it did not matter if 

 all surgeons prior to his time had acted on a different 

 supposition. Truth rose above custom, and the denial 

 of her message cost innumerable lives. Now it may 

 always be said, not without some measure of justifi- 

 cation, that the scientific dictum is based on a narrow 

 point of view, - - that the total experience of mankind, 

 derived from untold centuries of history, may indicate 

 truths not appreciable in the laboratory. It may be 

 so, doubtless is so in some measure ; but mankind can 

 no longer afford to neglect or disobey the word of 

 science. 



5. Thus the student of society has to contemplate 

 on the one hand an inspiring record of progress, and on 

 the other a disastrous chronicle of failures. His prac- 

 tical task is to determine what causes have led to the 

 one and to the other. How can the good be increased, 

 the inevitable error and evil diminished ? If he is 

 scientifically trained, he does not look for his answers 

 in the writings of the past, any more than 'he seeks 

 guidance for himself in some chronicle of his childhood. 

 We, who live today, are the mature people, who must 

 think and act in accordance with the stature to which 

 we have risen. The new point of view, if fully adopted, 

 would make over our whole system of government and 

 would enable us really to take advantage of the powers 

 of the human mind. 



6. Having thus gained a point of view, we may dis- 

 cuss a few practical applications. At the outset it 

 appears that the application of scientific methods 



