A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF LIFE 89 



repute in many quarters. But Cinderella, to paraphrase Huxley's apt 

 characterization of science, modestly conscious of her ignorance in high 

 matters, lights the fire, sweeps the house and provides the dinner, and 

 in reward for this, is called a base creature, devoted to low and material 

 interests. But this charge shows nothing so well as ignorance of her 

 ways, for in her garret she has visions of the order which pervades the 

 seeming disorder of the world, visions of the great drama of life, with 

 its full share of pity, terror and also of abundant goodness and beauty. 

 She has at her command, knowledge which she is ever ready to place at 

 the service of those who will use it, and she knows enough about ethics 

 to foretell social disorganization from immorality with the same assur- 

 ance with which she predicts bodily diseases from physical trespasses. 

 No brighter light than hers is set for mortals in all the firmament, and 

 by its light, dim though it be at times, we must walk, devoutly thankful 

 for the few rays of insight that now and again illumine the path. 



