THE ARBITER OF ETHICS 229 



and gradual trend toward treating matter symbolically. 

 The step between considering matter as tangible reality 

 and as Poincare's hole in the ether is really greater 

 than passing from material to immaterial phenomena 

 or than maintaining that science is the guide of char- 

 acter and the arbiter of ethics. In this way scientific 

 naturalism is more dangerous than the easily refuted 

 outbreak of Sir Oliver Lodge. 



Any system of ethics must aim to develop character; 

 it must establish a standard of good and evil; it must 

 judge actions according to this standard and provide 

 an inner check which will restrain the will of the indi- 

 vidual. But scientific experimentation and theory do 

 not directly consider character at all. The attempt is 

 there made to discover objective facts and laws which 

 have no character in themselves and to manipulate 

 or interfere with natural forces so that they will 

 add to our knowledge and power. No one would 

 hesitate to say that the discovery of the laws of 

 heat and their application to steam power were prob- 

 lems definitely in the field of scientific investigation or 

 that they had added enormously to our power. 

 They have in fact changed civilization, and yet 

 we cannot deduce from science whether or not 

 this acquisition of power has been accompanied 

 by a beneficial effect on civilization. That can 

 be determined only by the moral effect of the 

 expansion of industrialism on the inner life and 



