94 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



supposed to specialize on the ends or objects of living, 

 and scientists, engineers, chemists who are taught the 

 means but not the ends to be attained. The result is 

 a sterile art, divorced from life, and a meaningless 

 multiplication of sky-scrapers, subways, sewers, dams, 

 bridges, and engineering works of all kinds. 



In the homely things of life, so important in the 

 aggregate, this separation of art and science is now 

 almost universal. For instance, take such a homely 

 thing as bread the staff of life. Bread ought to be 

 nutritious and it ought to be tasty. One without the 

 other is an absurdity. Yet we have chemists in our 

 universities studying bread scientifically. They pro- 

 duce all sorts of facts about vitamins, about fermen- 

 tation, about nutrition. And then we have, even 

 today, many housewives baking bread and governing 

 their approach to the problem primarily by taste. The 

 one sees bread as an object, scientifically; the other 

 sees it as a flavor much as might an artist. Because of 

 the housewife's ignorance of science, she may ruin 

 her family's health; because of the scientist's ignor- 

 ance of art, bread is produced which is unfit for con- 

 sumption by cultivated palates. Of the two, the scien- 

 tist may actually do more harm than the housewife, 

 though it is hard to be certain about the matter. At 

 least the housewife's bread may taste well and so add 

 to the pleasures of the table, but the scientist may 

 reduce eating to the level of stoking a boiler. 



Some day I hope a group of intelligent and cul- 

 tured people may find it worth while to establish such 



