THE NEW ERA 117 



they say, deals with material things, and it argues 

 no advance in the higher powers of man that we can 

 deal with material things more effectively than ever. 



Luckily this particular kind of nonsense grows 

 rarer. Even if it were true that science dealt only 

 with material things, the gain would still be colossal. 

 Without setting up any dogma of materialism, we can 

 recognize that a transformation of the material con- 

 ditions of life would be an incalculable gain, and 

 would mean a stupendous triumph of mind, far 

 beyond anything ever seen in earlier civilizations. 

 It would mean the elimination or drastic restriction 

 of disease ; which in turn means, not only a vast 

 alleviation of pain, but a removal of a colossal 

 amount of moral disease and mental infirmity which, 

 as all now admit, depends upon material conditions. 

 It would mean an industrial improvement which would 

 permit fairer conditions and opportunities for all. 



But we would do well to ignore entirely this 

 unctuous distinction between material and spiritual 

 things. In so far as it is a precise and philosophical 

 form of speech, it depends upon a theory of life 

 which is disputed, and which we cannot consider 

 here. There is, indeed, no need to consider it, for 

 it is absurd to say that science is occupied only with 

 what these people call material things. There is 

 to-day a science of the mind as literally as there is 

 a science of the stars ; there is a science of beauty or 

 of conduct just as there is a science of geology or of 

 physiology. In fact, it would be to-day admitted that 

 it is only when we proceed on purely scientific lines 

 in investigating these things that we make progress. 



And here at last we get the really consoling and 

 supreme lesson of our study. Perhaps the statement 



