CHEMICAL ASPECTS OF LIFE HOPKINS 151 



tiniie. Those who doubt this cannot realize the meaning of that posi- 

 tive acceleration in science, pure and applied, which now continues. 

 No one can say what kind of equilibrium the distribution of leisure is 

 fated to reach. In any case an optimistic view as to the probable 

 effects of its increase may be justified. 



It need not involve a revolutionary change if there is real planning 

 for the future. Lord Melchett was surely right when some time ago 

 he urged on the upper House that present thought should be given 

 to that future ; but I think few men of affairs seriously believe what 

 is yet probable, that the replacement we are thinking of will impose 

 a new structure upon society. This may well differ in some essentials 

 from any of those alternative social forms of which the very names 

 now raise antagonisms. I confess that if civilization escapes its other 

 perils I should fear little the final reign of the machine. We should 

 not altogether forget the difference in use which can be made of real 

 and ample leisure compared with that possible for very brief leisure 

 associated with fatigue; nor the difference between compulsory toil 

 and spontaneous work. We have to picture, moreover, the reactions 

 of a community which, save for a minority, has shown itself during 

 recent years to be educable. I do not think it fanciful to believe that 

 our highly efficient national broadcasting service, with the increased 

 opportunities which the coming of short wave length transmission 

 may provide, might well take charge of the systematic education of 

 adolescents after the personal influence of the schoolmaster has pre- 

 pared them to profit by it. It would not be a technical education but 

 an education for leisure. Listening to organized courses of instruc- 

 tion might at first be for the few; but ultimately might become 

 habitual in the community which it would specifically benefit. 



In parenthesis allow me a brief further reference to " planning." 

 The word is much to the front just now, chiefly in relation with cur- 

 rent enterprises. But there may be planning for more fundamental 

 developments; for future adjustment to social reconstructions. In 

 such planning the trained scientific mind must play its part. Its 

 vision of the future may be very limited, but in respect of material 

 progress and its probable consequences science (I include all branches 

 of knowledge to which the name applies) has at least better data for 

 prophecy than other forms of knowledge. 



It was long ago written, " Wisdom and knowledge shall be stability 

 of Thy times." Though statesmen may have wisdom adequate for 

 the immediate and urgent problems with which it is their fate to 

 deal, there should yet be a reservoir of synthesized and clarified knowl- 

 edge on which they can draw. The technique which brings govern- 

 ments in contact with scientific knowledge in particular, though 

 greatly improved of late, is still imperfect. In any case the politician 

 is perforce concerned with the present rather than the future. I 



