268 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



knowledge called science. When it is once discovered that 

 any set of phenomena is predictable, and to that extent 

 controllable after the manner of science, men cease to believe 

 in the control of these phenomena by supernatural agencies. 

 Thus it happens that the realm, in which supernatural 

 controls are believed to be effective, is being progressively 

 diminished. The scientific method is likewise important, be- 

 cause through this method alone can men induce the frame 

 of mind necessary for progress and for the control of social 

 institutions. 



Concrete examples of the relation between scientific 

 knowledge and the material and social conditions in civil- 

 ized life need hardly be cited. This practical aspect of 

 science is familiar to all. The man in the street knows that 

 science gets him what he wants in his industrial enterprises, 

 in agriculture, in household convenience, and in all the 

 varied materialities of life. This aspect of science consti- 

 tutes its justification in the eyes of the world. Moreover, 

 the familiar facts in the recent history of the western nations 

 make it a matter of common knowledge that a host of 

 popular material comforts, which were only for the rich and 

 powerful at an earlier day, are the outcome of a practical 

 knowledge of the natural world, which is the more exact 

 knowledge of applied science. 



Social progress depends largely upon, first, the extent to 

 which society has developed the material conditions upon 

 which any advance of the cultural level must depend, and 

 second, upon the extent to which these conditions have been 

 diffused and equalized. The material basis for the finer 

 aspirations must be the birthright of a large majority, 

 before any change can be expected. Within the recent 

 centuries, science has accomplished this extension and 

 democratization of the material environment in western 

 society, by increasing both the volume and the nature of the 

 physical comforts which the majority can enjoy. Science 

 has created the material foundations of western culture. 



