756 POPULAR SCI^JS^CE MONTHLY, 



secured safety thus far is shown by his continued existence. He 

 may choose his course for himself not an easy thing to do, unless 

 he scans most carefully the nature of the rocks and waves and 

 his control of the boat itself. He may follow the course of others 

 with some degree of the safety they have attained. He may fol- 

 low his own impulses, in man's case inherited from those who 

 found them safe guides to action. But in new conditions neither 

 conventionality nor impulse nor desire will suffice. He must 

 know what is about him in order that he may know what he is 

 doing. He must know what he is doing in order to do anything 

 effectively. Ignorant action is more dangerous than no action at 

 all. The " sealed orders " under which live the lower animals and 

 our "brother organisms the plants" are in a measure inadequate 

 for man. With the power of movement and the " knowledge of 

 good and evil," he has no choice but to accept the conditions. He 

 must shape his own life. He must make his ideals into actuality. 

 And thus it comes that there is " no alleviation for the sufferings 

 of man except through absolute veracity of thought and action, 

 and the resolute facing of the world as it is." For wisdom is only 

 knowing what should be done next, and virtue is doing it. And 

 thus it comes that it is well for man " not to pretend to know or 

 to believe what he really does not know or believe " ; for there is 

 no safety in life, either for ourselves or others, if we guide our 

 conduct by any influence less wise or potent than that developed 

 from the co-ordination of human wisdom. We may play at phi- 

 losophy, if we have pleasure in doing so. We may find intellec- 

 tual strength through exercise of the mind even on its own prod- 

 ucts. But we must guide our lives by science. The appetites, 

 impulses, passions, illusions, if you choose, which have proved 

 safe in the past development of life, science would not destroy. 

 But they must be subordinate to the will and intellect. And this 

 subordination of the lower to the higher motives in life is the 

 culmination of evolution, as it has been the ideal of those whose 

 strivings for better relations of man to man and of man to Nature 

 have been worthy of the name of religion. 



The will is the soul of man in action. The intellect is its 

 guide. If the life of man is hemmed in by the Fates, the human 

 will is one of the Fates, and must take its place by the side of the 

 rest of them. The man who can will is a factor in the universe. 



As knowledge is in its essence only a guide to action, and as 

 knowledge, being human, can be approximate only not reality 

 but a movement toward reality we are brought to the oft- quoted 

 words of Lessing : 



" It is not the truth in man's possession that makes the worth 

 of the man. Possession makes him selfish, lazy, proud. Not 

 through possession, but through long striving, comes the ever- 



