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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



more than one of expediency, the better 

 it will be in every respect. We can not 

 view the matter in the same light. "VVe 

 are quite prepared to apply the test of 

 expediency ; but we hold that, if it can 

 be shown that there is a large class of 

 subjects which it is not expedient for 

 the State to touch, then it may be said 

 that there is ground which it is not 

 lawful for the State to enter. In ap- 

 plying the test of expediency, however, 

 we would apply it in the broadest sense. 

 "We should be careful not to mistake a 

 good intention for a good tendency ; 

 nor should we ever consent to overlook 

 the probable effect of any given law 

 upon the character of the community. 

 We should claim to judge it not by its 

 immediate and direct effects only, but 

 by its remote and indirect ones as well, 

 ever keeping in view the principle that 

 the well-being of the community must 

 in the last resort depend on the per- 

 sonal qualities of the men and women 

 composing it. Let others aim, if they 

 will, at the protection of everybody 

 against everything, and the reducing to 

 a minimum the energy, caution, judg- 

 ment, and courage required for the con- 

 duct of life ; we shall join in no such 

 crusade. "We believe that society pos- 

 sesses, and that individuals possess, 

 powers of adaptation to varying con- 

 tingencies which the protective spirit 

 in contemporary legislation is greatly 

 tending to obscure and overlay. We 

 want to see individual character more 

 and more brought into prominence as a 

 condition of success, and public opinion 

 developed and educated into a force 

 that can act for good independently of 

 legislative support. As things are go- 

 ing at present, it looks as if the " com- 

 ing slavery," foretold by a great phi- 

 losopher, might be hastened beyond 

 the measure of his fears. It behooves 

 all who believe in individual liberty and 

 individual responsibility as conditions 

 of social well-being to raise their voices 

 against a tendency which certainly is 

 hostile to both. 



TIIE AMERICAN- ASSOCIATION. 



The thirty- sixth meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, which was held in this 

 city in August, was well attended, and 

 made a good record of work. While it 

 was not marked by any papers of un- 

 usual brilliancy, or by the announce- 

 ment of any discoveries or theories of 

 startling import, the papers presented, 

 as a rule, bore evidence of careful, in- 

 telligent thought, and had their justifi- 

 cation either in embodying discussions 

 of public interest and utility, or as 

 being real contributions to some de- 

 partment of scientific research. That 

 the proportion of papers in which the 

 public is interested was liberal, is shown 

 by the fact that while the daily press 

 selected these for notice, carefully ex- 

 cluding all that w r as technical, they 

 gave fairly full reports, and such as 

 would be likely to impress their read- 

 ers that the Association was earnestly 

 engaged in the consideration of living 

 questions. Yet, besides these subjects, 

 the daily programmes of the meeting 

 were laden with topics and investiga- 

 tions in pure science, to which the sec- 

 tions equally gave attention. 



The address of retiring President 

 Morse, which we publish, takes up the 

 question of what American zoologists 

 have done for evolution at the point 

 where the author had left it in his ad- 

 dress before the Biological Section of 

 the Association in 1876, and brings it 

 down to the present date. In the sec- 

 tional vice-presidential addresses, Dr. 

 Brinton reviewed the data for the 

 study of the prehistoric chronology of 

 North America ; Professor Alvord, in 

 the Economic Section, talked of the 

 way in which we are wasting the sub- 

 stance of our land in our agricultural 

 exports ; Professor Gilbert reviewed 

 the work of the " International Con- 

 gress of Geologists," which, it appears, 

 is the fruit of a suggestion made at the 

 American Association in 1876 ; and 

 Professor W. A. Anthony spoke of the 



