244 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



omniscient power existing in society itself, is to deny 

 and abstract from the individual the basic axiom of 

 science that the laws of nature may be interfered 

 with. 



The third class, which leaves the guidance of the 

 evolution of the race more or less under the control 

 of individuals composing it, is properly a scientific 

 method, because it postulates an objective world sub- 

 ject to laws and permits of their modification. This 

 type of naturalism has already, under the name of 

 eugenics, attained a very considerable vogue, and it 

 is heralded as the long sought guide to righteousness. 

 It is worth while to consider its claims both as a 

 science and as a system of ethics. 



Since the science of physics has developed the sci- 

 entific method more consciously and more accurately 

 than any other of the sciences, we may turn to it for 

 an illustration of the method to be followed by eugen- 

 ists. In the first place, the experimenter puts himself 

 in the position of being external to the phenomena he 

 expects to investigate. He also decides beforehand 

 on the object of the experiment; that is, he has some 

 definite idea which he wishes to confirm or contra- 

 dict. He then observes and tabulates the phenomena 

 which are relative to the problem and abstracts from 

 them all the actions which complicate the result and 

 are not essential to it. But as he invariably finds that 

 the free and unconstrained phenomena are too com- 



