16 Introduction 



the main task of mankind, and we know that the work which we are all 

 doing together will not be destroyed by wars and other calamities, and 

 will not be interrupted by the accident of our own death. This revives 

 our faith and joy in our work. 



The fundamental importance of science in human life need not be 

 emphasized; that importance will necessarily increase and therefore the 

 relative importance of science in education will also increase. That is 

 unavoidable and no sensible and rational person would try to deflect the 

 trajectory of man's destiny, the irresistible growth of knowledge, of 

 science, yea, of techniques. Yet such a growth is not without dangers, 

 and it is part of our duty to minimize those dangers and to strengthen 

 our resistance to them. 



The Good Society, of which we are dreaming and which each of us 

 is trying in his own feeble way to encompass, will need the constant 

 help of two kinds of servants, the Statistician and the Historian. We 

 have already spoken of the former when we referred to Quetelet. It is 

 his business to keep his finger on the pulse of mankind and give the 

 necessary warnings when things are not going as they should. Quete- 

 let's message was delivered more than a century ago and was long mis- 

 interpreted, except by a few people. It is proper to evoke here one of 

 the earliest acceptances of that message, by a great English woman, 

 Florence Nightingale, 



"Her statistics were more than a study, they were indeed her reli- 

 gion. For her, Quetelet was the hero as scientist, and the presentation 

 copy of his Physique sociale is annotated by her on every page. Flor- 

 ence Nightingale believed — and in all the actions of her life acted upon 

 that belief — that the administrator could only be successful if he were 

 guided by statistical knowledge. The legislator — to say nothing of the 

 politician — too often failed for want of this knowledge. Nay, she went 

 further: she held that the universe — including human communities — ^was 

 evolving in accordance with a divine plan; that it was man's business to 

 endeavour to understand this plan and guide his actions in sympathy 

 with it. But to understand God's thoughts, she held we must study 

 statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose. Thus the study of 

 statistics was for her a religious duty." ^^ 



Since those days the function of the statistician are better understood, 

 but he has not yet received his full responsibilities. As to the historian, 

 I believe that most educated people understand the need of him for 

 political purposes, but not yet for the higher purposes which I have tried 

 to outline in this lecture — to wit, the deeper interpretation of science, 

 the defense of scientific tradition, the reconciliation of science with the 

 humanities, or as you may prefer to call it, the humanization of science, 

 the consecration of science to the Good Life. 



"Karl Pearson: The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton (vol. 2, 414, 

 1924; Isis, 8, 186; 23, 8). 



