THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 521 



parage the elevated aspirations and the noble efforts of the evangelists 

 and the humanists who seek to raise the lower to the plane of the higher 

 elements of our race ; but it is now plain as a matter of fact, however 

 repulsive it may seem to some of our inherited opinions, that the rail- 

 wa}^ the steamship, the telegraph and the daily press will do more to 

 illumine the dark places of the earth than all the apostles of creeds and 

 all the messengers of the gospel of 'sweetness and light.' 



A question of profound significance growing out of the extension 

 of commercial relations in our time is what may be called the question 

 of international health. An outbreak of cholera in Hamburg, the prev- 

 alence of yellow fever in Havana or an epidemic of bubonic plague 

 in India is no longer a matter of local import, as nations with which 

 we are well acquainted have learned recently in an expensive manner. 

 The management of this great international question calls for the ap- 

 plication of the most advanced scientific knowledge and for the most 

 intricate scientific investigation. Large sums of money must be de- 

 voted to this work, and many heroic lives will be lost, doubtless, in its 

 execution; but it is now evident, as a mere matter of international 

 political economy, that the cost of sound sanitation will be trifling in 

 comparison with the cost of no sanitation; while further careful study 

 of the natural history of diseases promises practical immunity from 

 many of them at no distant day. International associations of all 

 kinds must aid greatly also in the promotion of progress. Many such 

 organizations have, indeed, already undertaken scientific projects with 

 the highest success. Comparison and criticism of methods and results 

 not only lead rapidly and effectively to improvements and advances, but 

 they lead also to a whole-hearted recognition of good work which puts 

 the fraternalism of men of science on a plane far above the level of the 

 amenities of merely diplomatic life. 



When we turn to the general status of science itself, there is seen 

 to be equal justification for hopefulness founded on an abundance of 

 favorable conditions. The methods of science may be said to have 

 gained a footing of respectability in almost every department of thought, 

 where, a half -century ago, or even twenty years ago, their entry was 

 either barred out or stoutly opposed. The 'Conflict between Eeligion 

 and Science' — jnore precisely called the conflict between theology 

 and science — which disturbed so many eminent though timid minds, 

 including not a few men of science a quarter of a century ago, has 

 now been transferred almost wholly to the field of the theological con- 

 testants; and science may safely leave them to determine the issue, 

 ?ince it is evidently coming by means of scientific methods. The grave 

 fears entertained a few decades ago by distinguished theologians and 

 publicists as to the stability of the social fabric under the stress put 

 upon it by the rising tide of scientific ideas, have not been realized. 



