THE STABILITY OF TRUTH. 749 



economies or provided by new and increased taxes ? And if the 

 latter policy is favored, its advocates will do well to remember, 

 that any taxes that tend to obstruct the export of the surplus 

 products of the country will not long be tolerated.* 



THE STABILITY OF TRUTH.f 



By DAVID STARR JORDAN, 



PEESIDEKT OF LELAND STANFORD JUNIOB UNIVEKSITT. 



\_ConcIuded.'\ 



THE primal motive of science is to regulate the conduct of life. 

 This is in a sense its ultimate end, for it is the first and the 

 last function of the senses and the intellect. If science has any 

 message to man, it is expressed in these words of Huxley : "There 

 can be no alleviation of the sufferings of mankind except in ab- 

 solute veracity of thought and action and a resolute facing of the 

 world as it is, with all the garment of make-believe thrown off." 



" Still, men and nations reap as they have strewn." The 

 history of human thought is filled with the rise of philosophic 

 doctrines, laws, and generalizations not drawn from human ex- 

 perience and not sanctioned by science. The attempt to use these 

 ideas as a basis of human action has been one of the most fruitful 

 sources of human misery. It is true that wrong information may 

 sometimes become the basis of right action, as falsehood may 

 secure obedience to a natural law which might otherwise be vio- 

 lated. But in the long run men and nations pay dearly for every 

 illusion they cherish. For every sick man healed at Denver or 

 Lourdes, ten well men will be made sick. Faith cures and patent 

 medicines feed on the same victims. For every Schlatter who 

 is worshiped as a saint, some equally harmless lunatic will be 

 burned as a witch. 



And now a word as to the positive side of scientific belief. 



* Touching the question of national revenue and its present yearly deficiency, the fol- 

 lowing opinion, expressed by the late Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report on the 

 finances of the country for 1896, has an important bearing on this problem, and ought not 

 to fail of popular consideration : " Hereafter," he says, " it will not be possible to sacrifice 

 revenue to protection without seriously embarrassing the fiscal affairs of the Govern- 

 ment by depriving it of an income sufficient to defray its necessary expenditures. If the 

 usual proportion of this income is hereafter to be derived from taxes on imported goods, the 

 protective theory must be abandoned as the basis of our legislation upon the subject, and a 

 well-considered and consistent revenue system must be substituted in its place ; and, in my 

 opinion, this can be done without material injury to any trade or industry now existing in 

 this country," 



j- President's address, California Science Association meeting, Oakland, December, 1895. 



