634 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wasp; the farmer in the agricultural ant; the bridge-builder in the 

 spider; the weaver in the weaver bird; the creator of water power in 

 the heaver, and so on. Yet no other animal except man has developed 

 or extended any of these arts. No other animal except man has learned 

 to make and use fire and not to run away from it. 



If, then, man by his power of mental energy converts the original 

 and crude forces with which the earth is endowed into new forms, and 

 by giving them new direction increases his power of production of the 

 means of his own subsistence and enjoyment of life, does it not follow 

 that creation is a continuous procession in which man is a factor? 

 "There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may." 

 The ideal of 'an honest God the noblest concept of man' becomes the 

 converse of an honest man the noblest work of God — honest in a broad 

 sense in his dealings with the forces of nature; true to his function. 



There is a painful side to statistical and economic study. The 

 penalty of being able to read what is written between the lines and the 

 columns of the figures is the conclusion that after we have all done the 

 best work that the present conditions of science will permit, the entire 

 product barely suffices to keep mankind in existence; his fixed capital, 

 so-called, is at the mercy both of time and of the inventor who sub- 

 stitutes better methods which at less cost of effort or labor yield 

 more abundance to the community as a whole. But on the other hand, 

 no matter how hard the struggle for existence may be, we find the 

 promise of future abundance even in the insufficient product which has 

 been derived from the application of science and invention up to date. 

 Witness the relative progress of the last century as compared with all 

 the previous centuries; then attempt to conceive what will be the con- 

 dition of humanity a century hence, knowing, as we do, that the appli- 

 cations of science through mental energy now proceed in geometric 

 progression, reversing the dogma of Malthus and leading to the con- 

 cept of production unlimited, consumption limited. 



If it be true that there is no conceivable limit to the power of mind 

 over matter or to the number of conversions of force that can be de- 

 veloped, providing in increasing measure for the wants of the human 

 body, it follows that pauperism is due to poverty of mental energy, not 

 of material resources. 



The next step in the development of this theory may be presented 

 in this form: No man is paid by the measure in time or physical effort, 

 for the work or labor that he performs. No man can claim payment in 

 money or in kind on the ground that he has done a day's work of a 

 greater or less number of hours. In all civilized countries we are 

 members one of another; rich or poor; whether we work with our hands 

 or our heads, or both combined. Material existence is supported by 

 conversion of one form of physical energy into another. Social energy 



