SCIENCE AND LIFE 1 



" Science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater 

 because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent 

 appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political 

 and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which 

 have marked the development of modern civilisation." A. J. 

 BALFOUR, Decadence^ 1908. 



THE curiously limited outlook of the devotees of 

 scientific inquiries, the strange contrast between the 

 recluseness of the individual and the cumulative 

 consequences to society of their work, has been the 

 note struck by many modern commentators. The 

 spirit of the mythical don, who thanked the Almighty 

 at the close of a life-long tussle with a mathematical 

 problem that its solution could never be of the least 

 possible use to anyone, is still revered as the pure 

 distilled essence of scientific endeavour. That this 

 cloisteral attitude is essential to the highest and 

 most practical discovery is patent from a casual 

 examination of the history of science. But whether 

 it is sane to leave entirely to the unscientific wisdom 

 of the age the proper direction and utilisation for the 

 many of the treasure so acquired, is a question to 

 which the answer is equally patent from a casual 

 examination of the history of the application of 

 science. The immense acquisition to the wealth 

 and resources of mankind which has been the result 



1 This is a revised and abbreviated version of an article which 

 appeared in The Candid Quarterly some years ago, and subsequently 

 in The Student Movement, December 1918 to February 1919. 



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