THE NEW EEA 119 



world, the poor general level of character from age to 

 age, and the chaos of contradictory opinions which is 

 responsible. 



The old Greeks were right. The first virtue is 

 wisdom. The uplifting of our race demands the 

 cultivation of the heart — of fine sentiment and 

 character — just as much as the cultivation of the 

 mind, but the latter is more fundamental. We must 

 know the right way before we can walk in it. That 

 is the truth we are re-discovering. We are beginning 

 to apply science to life. We have done with laissez- 

 faire — which means, let things grow up. We are 

 going to make them grow up. We have so bred 

 and trained cows that they will give three thousand 

 gallons of milk a year. There is not an element or 

 feature of life that we cannot similarly raise to a 

 vastly higher level. We are going to treat life as a 

 scientific breeder treats plants. It shall all be plotted 

 out, and its conditions scientifically studied, by a 

 central brain. The idea of fighting it out and letting the 

 better survive is the very opposite of science. Evolu- 

 tion guided by intelligence, constructive evolution, 

 harmonious social co-operation — these are the ideals 

 obviously thrust upon us by the very fact that 

 intelligence now exists. 



And it is an essential condition of this further and 

 more rapid progress that a way shall be found of 

 putting an end to the old division of the race into a 

 cultivated few and an uncultivated many. Democracy 

 is inconsistent with such a situation, and is always 

 in danger of being wrecked by it. Fine sentiment is 

 inconsistent with it. The time is coming when men 

 of brain will themselves devise a way out, for our age 

 is now rapidly advancing in sentiment as well as in 



