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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



edge indeed is not more in danger than 

 capital of throwing off social restraint is 

 quite an open question. 



Prof. Mendenhall touches a very im- 

 portant point when he speaks of the 

 unfortunate absence of the scientific ele- 

 ment from our political life. There may 

 be, doubtless there are, causes for this 

 for which men of science are not to be 

 blamed ; but still it is a fact that a man 

 of science is commonly looked upon as 

 a man inapt for affairs. In the British 

 Parliament science is represented by 

 such men as Sir Henry Koscoe, Sir John 

 Lubbock, Sir Lyon Playfair ; literature 

 and philosophy by Mr. John Morley, Mr. 

 Balfour, and Mr. Gladstone, to mention 

 but a few names out of many ; and no 

 one will question that the presence of 

 such men raises the intellectual tone of 

 any assembly in which they sit. In this 

 country we seem to have no use for men 

 of science and not much even for litte- 

 rateurs. The consequence is that with 

 us political discussion shows a total lack 

 of breadth and an almost total lack of 

 conviction. A tariff bill is the occasion 

 for a simple tug-of-war, not for discus- 

 sion in the true sense. Time was, as 

 Prof. Mendenhall points out, when our 

 politics could show such names as 

 Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamil- 

 ton men strongly tinctured w T ith phi- 

 losophy and at the same time of high 

 practical intelligence. Why should the 

 Republic not have to-day the services 

 of its most thoughtful sons ? While the 

 thought of the age is rising why should 

 our politics grovel? When so many 

 practical problems of the gravest mo- 

 ment are pressing for settlement, why 

 should the very men whose habits of 

 mind best fit them for social service re- 

 tire, as it were, to a Sacred Mountain 

 of their own and leave the field of civic 

 activity to sentimentalists and adven- 

 turers? To answer these questions or 

 to attempt to answer them would re- 

 quire more space than we command. 

 Suffice it to say that these things should 

 not be, and that much harm will result 



if they should remain as characteristic 

 features of our civilization. Our chief 

 hope lies in the adoption by the scien- 

 tific class of that new and better view 

 of their duties and functions indicated 

 by Prof. Mendenhall. There is not 

 much use in preaching to large masses, 

 but small bodies may be more easily in- 

 fluenced; and it hardly seems an im- 

 possible thing that the corps of scien- 

 tific workers should be penetrated by a 

 new sense of social duty and should re- 

 solve to keep in closer touch with the 

 people than heretofore. What gives 

 the clergy of the several churches their 

 undoubted influence ? It is that they 

 are with the people and of them. If 

 they deal in mysteries, those mysteries 

 are not their private property : what- 

 ever benefit or grace they yield is avail- 

 able for all. The mysteries of some of 

 our scientists, on the pontrary, far from 

 being for all, are prized in direct propor- 

 tion to the fewness of those who can 

 take any part in them. The soaring 

 specialist is never satisfied till he stands 

 on a pinnacle so small that no one can 

 get footing beside him. 



We need hardly say that we find in 

 the address of Prof. Mendenhall an 

 abundant justification of the work in 

 which we have been engaged now for a 

 long term of years the work of bringing 

 home the best and surest results of sci- 

 ence to a popular circle of readers and 

 of keeping up as active a connection as 

 possible between true scientific workers 

 and the public. To this work we shall 

 apply ourselves in future with increased 

 courage and determination increased 

 courage from the hope that the stirring 

 words of the retiring President of the 

 American Association will bring us new 

 allies and helpers ; increased determina- 

 tion from a quickened sense of the need of 

 just such work. It is no new dogmatism 

 that the times call for, but a new spirit of 

 helpfulness and hopefulness guided by sci- 

 ence. By this means, and this only, will 

 the world solve its problems and outride 

 the storms that threaten its civilization. 



