246 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



such as the operation of selection and the struggle for existence. But 

 if it is to have a scientific foundation it must base itself on the com- 

 parative study of community life. 



I do not mean that the study of an ant family will give us any 

 better system of taxation. But I do mean that the careful study of 

 lower social states will lay a firmer basis to the general subject of 

 sociology, and thus come to better human conditions. Then also our 

 treatment of criminals must to large extent rest upon biology, for the 

 main practical question involved is whether criminal traits and tenden- 

 cies are inherited or whether they are learned. The whole subject of 

 heredity is a biological one, and the outsiders who have ventured into 

 this field have given no solutions. How we shall treat criminals and 

 their children will depend upon the outcome of the theoretical investi- 

 gation of heredity. 



Much more might be said concerning the practical value of pure 

 science, but I will mention only one more point, and that right briefly. 

 It is ethical and is perhaps the most important of all. Science seeks 

 the truth, and respects no opinion that does not represent the truth. 

 Science is not so much materialistic as realistic, and it has to do only 

 with what may be determined by experiment and observation. Like 

 the every-day practical man, the scientist holds that those things that 

 seem outside of himself are really outside, and not existent simply 

 in his own mind; and he is striving to explain the relation of those 

 things to each other and to himself. While confining himself to such 

 subjects he does not, in fact, has no right to, imply that there are not 

 other fields of thought. But with regard to the world of things, he 

 claims the right to decide what is real and what is unreal. That man 

 is valued the most in science who sees the truth most clearly, and states 

 it most simply. Right or wrong in science is then a measure of the 

 truth. The great outcome of scientific thought is the unity of all 

 nature, and the great aim in view is the truth. Thoughts like these 

 must come to profoundly modify systems of ethics. Science has a 

 difficult road to travel, for it keeps pushing steadily onward into dark 

 places. In the nature of the case it must make many mistakes, but it 

 keeps the right ideal. The idea of the truth and the ways of reaching 

 it may continue to change as they have in the past, but humanity can 

 not go far wrong so long as it earnestly seeks the truth. 



These matters are worth thinking about when there is so much 

 discussion about the value of higher education. We hear protests 

 against the cost of maintaining universities, and there are some people 

 who honestly suppose that the higher seats of learning should be self- 

 supporting. Indeed there was one college started in the east by a 

 millionaire, and he was greatly surprised to find that he was to get no 

 dividends. Education is never satisfied; it uses greedily all available 



