71 



This was formerly a world in which the winner was the man 

 with the brute strength and physical bravery which gave him 

 the power to win in a hand to hand battle. It was a world 

 in which all, even the fighters who secured the spoils and the 

 kings who ruled the fighters, lived in comparative discomfort. 

 It was a world in which the higher thoughts, aspirations, and 

 the impulse to render unselfish service, which are the essence 

 of civilization, came to but very few. The masses of humanity 

 were too heavily loaded with hard labor, with real oppression 

 from the classes above them, and with the effects of ignorance 

 and superstition, to have a part in the crude civilization which 

 existed. It was a world in which men knew only their nearest 

 neighbors, in which nations perpetually fought against each 

 other, in which each people was densely ignorant of every other 

 and correspondingly suspicious. 



The workers in pure and applied science, by bringing into 

 general use a method of thought which is the antithesis of super- 

 stition, by providing efficient means of intercommunication and 

 for the general dift'usion of knowledge, and by turning the 

 forces of nature to the uses of man, have changed this into 

 a world in which the winner is the man who thinks clearly, 

 controls himself, and may be depended upon, the man who 

 serves rather than the man who fights. It is now a world in 

 which millions live in greater comfort and security than did 

 even the kings of the ages before the scientist. It is now a 

 world in which the average man works such short hours and 

 under such comfortable conditions that he has abundant oppor- 

 tunities within his reach to share in the real benefits of civili- 

 zation, to develop himself to his full capacity. 



Possibly it may seem that I have exaggerated the influence 

 of science upon the progress of knowledge and its influence in 

 changing the very nature of practical affairs. In terse state- 

 ments there is apt to be some exaggeration. But I challenge a 

 critical examination of the thesis which has been put forward 

 that the progress of civilization in the past century has been 

 founded upon science and would have been impossible without 

 science. 



