COHESIVE POWER OF SOCIAL LIFE 267 



then, by observing their reactions, to obtain from them 

 more trustworthy testimony to nature-action, unpreju- 

 diced by previous opinion, conflicting vital influences, 

 or human emotions. 



This mental humility, or the willingness to appeal 

 to the democracy of nature and to submit to the un- 

 biassed testimony of her humblest constituents, defi- 

 nitely initiated the delivery of man from the dominion 

 of his own senses. During the eighteenth and nine- 

 teenth centuries, probably for the first time in history, 

 this mental attitude became the chief characteristic of 

 intellectual leaders, and the means by which they made 

 their most important discoveries. It was the chief fac- 

 tor in the rapid evolution of modern science, and at 

 once revealed to man a new world of architectural 

 realities, to which he was compelled mentally to orient 

 himself, whether he would or no. 



By means of these new physical instruments, prac- 

 tically all of them constructed, or greatly improved, 

 during the nineteenth century, the precision, range, and 

 capacity of human sense organs was magnified many 

 hundred, thousand, or even million fold. The micro- 

 scope, telescope, and camera became a new eye; the 

 stethoscope, seismograph, and phonograph, a new 

 ear; and physical, astronomical, chemical, and biologi- 

 cal laboratories, with all their machinery for measur- 

 ing, analyzing, and recording nature-action, became 

 new balancing, temperature, olfactory, and gustatory 

 organs. But even more than that, they were building 

 a more stable and more comprehensive register of 

 human experience, in fact, a new social memory, and 

 a cloud of ready witnesses that were partisans of no 

 theory, no race, no government, and no religion. 



