520 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



especially in view of the possibility that some of the more recently de- 

 veloped sciences may suffer relapses similar to those which so long 

 eclipsed geography and astronomy. 



It must be confessed, therefore, when we look backward over the 

 events of the past two thousand years, and when we consider the scien- 

 tific contents of the mind of the average denizen of this planet, that 

 it is not wholly rational to entertain millennial anticipations of prog- 

 ress in the immediate future. The fact that some of the prime dis- 

 coveries of science have so recently appeared to many earnest thinkers 

 to threaten the very foundations of society is one which should not be 

 overlooked in these confident times of prosperity. And the equally im- 

 portant fact that entire innocence with respect to the elements of science 

 and dense ignorance with respect to its methods, have not been hitherto 

 incompatible vdth justly esteemed eminence in the divine, the states- 

 man, the jurist and the man of letters, is one which should be reckoned 

 with in making up any forecast. It may be seriously doubted, indeed, 

 whether the progress of the individual is not essentially limited by the 

 progress of the race. 



But this obverse and darker side of the picture which confronts 

 us from the past has its reverse and brighter side ; and I am constrained 

 to believe that the present status of science and the general enlighten- 

 ment of humanity justify ardent hopefulness if not sanguine optimism 

 with respect to the future of scientific achievement. The reasons 

 for this hopefulness are numerous; some of them arising out of the 

 commercial and political conditions of the world, and others arising 

 out of the conditions of science itself. 



Perhaps the most important of all these reasons is found in the 

 general enlargement of ideas which has come, and is coming, with the 

 extension of trade and commerce to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

 We are no longer citizens of this or that country, simply. Whether 

 we wish it or not we are citizens of the world, with increased opportu- 

 nities and with increased duties. We may not approve — few men of 

 science would approve, I think — that sort of 'expansion' which works 

 'benevolent assimilation' of inferior races by means of a bible in one 

 hand and a gun in the other; but nothing can help so much, it seems 

 to me, to remove the stumbling blocks in the way of the progress of 

 science as actual contact with the manners, the customs, the relations 

 and the resulting questions for thought, now thrust upon all civilized 

 nations by the events of the day. That sort of competition which is 

 the life of trade, that sort of rivalry which is the stimulus to national 

 effort, and that sort of cooperation which is essential for mutual protec- 

 tion, all make for the cosmopolitan dissemination of scientific truth 

 and for the appreciation of scientific investigation. I would not dis- 



