74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



social miseries and weaknesses is beyond 

 oar present purpose. So much, indeed, 

 do people in general think of charity as 

 a social remedy, and so little do they 

 think of justice in that light, that it 

 would not be surprising, were a change 

 of policy from charity to justice decided 

 on, if there should be a marked unreadi- 

 ness and inaptitude for the practice of 

 the new virtue. It might be found, 

 moreover, to involve a great deal more 

 than charity had ever appeared to in- 

 volve. When a man is bestowing char- 

 ity he may give little or much ; as it is 

 all a free gift, there is virtue, there is 

 merit, there is room for self-commenda- 

 tion, however little he gives; but when 

 he is dealing out justice the case is dif- 

 ferent : he must go to a certain line or 

 Tie fails in justice and is open to con- 

 demnation. No wonder charity is the 

 favorite virtue ; but the more we com- 

 pare the two the more we see that jus- 

 tice is the better for the soul. It does 

 not flatter self-love, and it is more favor- 

 able to respect for our fellows. 



Justice, we have said, is the word of 

 science, and herein we see where sci- 

 ence may powerfully help to strengthen 

 the social fabric. On the one hand, sci- 

 ence tends to produce social ferment by 

 continually introducing new ideas and 

 continually unsettling commercial ar- 

 rangements in the various ways which 

 Mr. D. A. "Wells has so well pointed out. 

 On the other hand, if science can be 

 made to ever inculcate and reinculcate 

 the idea of justice, it will do vastly more 

 by that means to knit, than it possibly 

 can in any other way to loosen, the 

 bonds of society. Let us have science, 

 then, in our schools ; but let it not be a 

 mere matter of experimenting with gases 

 and acids, with air-pumps and electric 

 machines, but let it be brought home as 

 Nature's message to the hearts as well 

 as to the minds of the young. Let it 

 teach them justice; let it impress upon 

 them that there is a right, that there is 

 a true, that there are moral balances as 

 well as chemical ones, that there are 



conditions of moral stability and insta- 

 bility just as of chemical or mechanical 

 or electrical. The teacher who can not 

 extract moral instruction ar.d inspiration 

 out of physical science ought to leave it 

 alone whether he is fit to teach any- 

 thing is a question. There are countless 

 useful analogies to be drawn between 

 the laws of matter and those of mind 

 and of society. To mention but one 

 that occurs to us at this moment, the 

 law of the expansion of gases with di- 

 minishing pressure is an apt illustration 

 of the expansion of human desires with 

 enlarging scope, or, in other words, as 

 external pressure diminishes. As in tho 

 one case with every added volume tho 

 elasticity becomes less, so too often in 

 human life, the more desires are grati- 

 fied, the less there is of that elasticity 

 of spirits which made life seem worth 

 living. 



The law of natural selection, again, 

 might be made to teach many most 

 useful lessons. It shows in the first 

 place that, as the world is constituted, 

 it is a great privilege to live. Then, 

 if life is to be maintained on a satis- 

 factory footing, it must be by the ex- 

 ercise of prudence, of industry, and 

 whatever other virtues make for indi- 

 vidual success. The thought that so 

 many lives are abortive, far from culti- 

 vating pride or selfishness, should add a 

 certain tinge of solemnity to all one's 

 thoughts of life. " Iu me," each of us 

 may think, "that spark which struggled 

 vainly to maintain itself in so many 

 others has become a living flame. IIow 

 shall I use the powers so mysteriously 

 bestowed and on which in many ways 

 such vast issues depend? Shall I make 

 life, as I ought, a sacred thing, or shall I 

 pass my days in idle frivolity or yet 

 more idle gloom ? Seeing that I possess 

 the gift of life, shall I not strive to raise 

 it to its highest value and its best ex- 

 pression? " If life is a struggle, it is a 

 struggle not so much against living com- 

 petitors that is a view of which quito 

 too much is made as against antagonist 



