INTRODUCTION j r 



moulding it for better or for worse. We have become 

 like gods, knowing good and evil. Shall we have the 

 patience and insight to study the problem with a single- 

 minded desire for truth ? If we find a solution, shall 

 we have the courage and steadfastness to apply it firmly 

 and temperately to the social organism ? It may be 

 that the necessary means will run counter to some forms 

 of prevailing sentimentalism, that by-product of the 

 growth in our moral conscience. But moral con- 

 science itself must not be identified with a half- 

 hysterical haste to stop pain or inconvenience at all 

 costs. A sane moral conscience looks beyond, and 

 determines that the best elements both in man and in 

 mankind shall be free to grow and the worst elements 

 shall be repressed whatever stands in the way. 



It is possible that the modern desire to alleviate 

 distress and to prolong life in all circumstances is to be 

 traced, in part at all events, to a decay in the old con- 

 ception of life as a probationary training ground, and 

 the failure to find any worthy ideal to take its place. 

 To those who have no belief in a future existence, this 

 life too often tends to become a banquet in which some 

 feast and others fight for the crumbs. To such minds, 

 pending the revival of a deeper faith, the thought 

 of the future welfare and improvement of the nation 

 or the race may supply the ideal necessary for a worthy 

 life. Those, on the other hand, who regard each man's 

 frame as the dwelling-place of an immortal soul, will 

 feel more the awful responsibility that it is ours to 

 determine, by our individual and corporate action, 

 whether or no the bodies and minds of succeeding 

 generations shall be fit temples for such sparks of 



