548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



result in a warm room. When an ocean steamer is to be built at a cost 

 of $15,000,000, the capitalists risk that sum on the prediction of the 

 engineers that if such and such be done, a steamer of well-defined capac- 

 ities will be the outcome. 



We are already in possession of so great a body of truth that no man 

 can know one-hundredth part of that which mankind as a whole has. On 

 looking over the field of what science has accomplished for the ameliora- 

 tion of human life, we are impelled to ask: "How has science solved 

 such problems and conferred such benefits?" Science is the syste- 

 matized knowledge of the human race. The science which deserves the 

 name is a knowledge of the future. How do we arrive at this knowledge 

 of the future ? The answer is familiar. 



Science has at her disposal a great number of so-called " laws," that 

 is, knowledge of the interdependence of occurrences. If we know that 

 whenever A happens, B will follow, we have gained two things. If A 

 occurs without act of ours, we can predict the coming of B and so 

 arrange our lives that B will be as advantageous as possible for us, or 

 as little injurious. On the other hand, if we can influence the coming 

 of A, we will avoid A when B is undesirable, or produce A in the 

 reverse case. Science, then, works in two ways. By its help we can 

 prepare ourselves for the future or we can prepare the future for 

 ourselves. Neither of these things is done by man exclusively. All 

 living things have the rudiments of the capacity to see into the future, 

 and even to adapt it to their needs, as, for example, in the case of a cer- 

 tain wasp, which buries along with each egg hidden in the soil, a freshly 

 killed insect, so that the larva may find food at hand. Such primitive 

 forms of conduct directed toward the future do not constitute science; 

 in so much as they are not purposive nor conscious. It is necessary 

 merely to allude to these instinctive acts upon which the existence of a 

 species depends, in order to bring clearly to the understanding the vital 

 importance of science to mankind. 



In ancient times work was looked upon as highly undesirable. As a 

 heavy punishment for disobedience regarding the tree of knowledge, the 

 primal curse was imposed : In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy 

 daily bread. Civilized man has arrived at an attitude toward work quite 

 different from this. To him, a life devoid of labor appears empty and 

 shallow. Those who would wish such a life he regards as contemporaries 

 of minor worth. His high aspirations turn, not toward a state free 

 from labor, but, rather to one in which he may enjoy the happiness of 

 choosing the object of his work and its kind. 



Even modern conquerors and despots, that is, those collectors and 

 possessors of giant capital, who in our time are the greatest world-power, 

 are infected with the modern need and impulse to work and, however 

 questionable (or unquestionable) their morals may in other respects be, 



