PRESENT PROBLEMS OF TECHNOLOGY 573 



state whether it shall endure for a million years or perish in a 

 season. 



The biologist has yet to learn the mysteries of life in plant and 

 animal and has not even unraveled the secret of sex in generation. 

 He studies the mechanism of the fish, but cannot explain the pro- 

 cess of separating the oxygen from the medium in which it moves; 

 so likewise he may understand the structure and mechanism of the 

 bird, but fails to leam the mysterious power whereby it soars aloft, 

 and, perceiving its prey from afar, captures it. 



The anatomist may know to an ounce the power developed in 

 an animal per pound of muscle, but he cannot say how that power 

 is originated, transferred, or exerted by the transmitting thread of 

 the working muscles. Our authority concludes : 



"The engineer has learned how to convert the potential energy 

 of perhaps a myriad ages into steam and to apply it to the dynam- 

 ics of the factory or locomotive, but in doing so he wastes from 

 four fifths to nine tenths of it. He transforms the elastic force 

 into an electric current, but frequently loses as much as he applies 

 at the tool's edge. He diverts the energy of the waterfall into an 

 electric-light current with its concomitant heat-rays, while the glow- 

 worm shames the man, producing light without heat and heat 

 without light. 



"He crowds his fellow man into mills and factories, but he has 

 not yet solved the social problem of giving to each an individual 

 life, work, and wage, with comfort, health, and happiness in just 

 proportion." 



Thus the man of science finds that the acquisition of learning, 

 gain in knowledge, and increasing appreciation of the wonders of 

 creation, only serve to impress upon him the greatest responsibili- 

 ties, possibilities and opportunities as well as the mightier mysteries 

 of its Maker, stimulating him to nobler aspirations, more earnest 

 labor and higher aims and giving him a larger faith and a stronger 

 sense of the infinitude of duty and opportunity. 



In short, no more sublime arraignment of the impotency of man 

 to solve the ever present problems of his existence and necessities, 

 in the most economic manner, can be found than that recorded in 

 the closing chapters of the Book of Job, wherein the Lord charges 

 him with "darkening counsel by words without knowledge" and 

 proceeds to catechize him as to the origin of the world and its phe- 

 nomena, in a manner so profoundly majestic that most of the 

 queries remain unanswered even unto this day. 



These same interrogatories therefore constitute a catalogue of 

 present problems in all departments of science, and their solution 

 can best be approached only by a closer communion with the omni- 

 scient Source of all Wisdom. 



