70 Scientific Truth and the Scientific Spirit 



of succeeding ages. Even today the vast majority of mankind re- 

 gard their beliefs and generalizations as true because they work or 

 give a satisfactory explanation of the scheme of things as it appears 

 now. 



That the pragmatic point determined what Truth was in the 

 mind of prehistoric man may be gathered from the study of the 

 beHefs and practices of those tribes which are still in the prehistoric 

 stage of culture. Sir John G. Frazer, the author of " The Golden 

 Bough," and one of the profoundest students of the history of 

 human culture, in his work, " Psyche's Task," claims that the evo- 

 lution of some of our most cherished convictions and principles, such 

 as the sacredness of human life, sexual morality, the rights of 

 property and our conception of social order, was promoted by the 

 beliefs and generalizations of prehistoric races. These beliefs and 

 generalizations now appear to us as superstition, and of the gross- 

 est character in some respects, but this very superstition in promot- 

 ing those convictions and principles on which the whole fabric of 

 Society rests has rendered a great service to humanity. Sir John 

 Frazer admits that superstition has been productive of evil in the 

 history of the race, but this should not blind us to the benefit it has 

 conferred, and he gives special point to all this by a dictum which 

 for its brevity and concentrated wisdom is well worth remember- 

 ing : *' Once the harbour lights are passed and the ship is in port, 

 it matters little whether the pilot steered by a Jack o'lantern or the 

 Stars." 



The history of the human mind is then that of long ages of 

 discipline in pragmatism. It is the pragmatic mind that has brought 

 man along the road of progress through the million or more years 

 of the prehistoric period to the stage of civilization of today. It 

 is the pragmatic mind that will lead him, indeed force him, along 

 the road of progress in the many, many millions of years during 

 which the race will possess the earth. In all that time to come he 

 will refine more and more the processes by which he arrives at what 

 he will regard as Truth and he will subject it to ever rigider tests 

 as the millennia pass. As a result, there will be many a discarded 

 belief and generalization once looked upon as Truth, just as there 



