164 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



ords are still very short. Three centuries ! How little that is as com- 

 pared with the totality of human experience; hardly more than a 

 moment, a wink of the eye. Will it last? Will it improve or wane 

 and die out? There are many unhealthy elements in it and if we 

 wish to uproot them before the disease has spread beyond our 

 control, we must expose them mercilessly, but that is not my 

 task. If we want our civilization to justify itself, we must do our 

 best to purify it. One of the best ways of doing this is the cultiva- 

 tion of disinterested science; the love of truth — as a scientist 

 loves it, the whole of it, pleasant or unpleasant, useful or not; the 

 love of truth, not the fear of it; the hatred of superstition, no mat- 

 ter how beautiful its disguises may be. Whether our civilization 

 will last or not, at any rate it has not yet proved its longevity. 

 Hence we must be modest. After all the main test is that of sur- 

 vival, and we have not yet been tried. 



New inspirations may still, and do still, come from the East, 

 and we shall be wiser if we realize it. In spite of its prodigious 

 triumphs, the scientific method is not all-sufficient. It is supreme 

 when it can be applied and when it is well applied, but it would 

 be foolish not to recognize the two kinds of limitations which this 

 implies. First, the method cannot always be applied. There are 

 immense realms of thought where it is thus far inapplicable — art, 

 religion, morality. Perhaps it will always be inapplicable to them. 

 Second, it can be very easily misapplied, and the possibilities of 

 misapplication of such an inexhaustible source of power are ap- 

 palling. 



It is clear that the scientific spirit is unable to control its own 

 applications. To begin with, these applications are often in the 

 hands of people who have no scientific knowledge whatever; for 

 example, it is not necessary to have any education or instruction 

 in order to drive a high-powered car which may cause any amount 

 of destruction. But even scientists might be tempted to misapply 

 their knowledge under the influence of a strong passion. The 

 scientific spirit must be itself assisted by other forces of a different 



