226 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



energy and life, and with most good to himself, con- 

 sidering "good" and "himself" not too narrowly. 

 " Real gain," said Sir William Ramsay, " real progress 

 consists in learning how better to employ energy — how 

 better to effect its transformation." There are, of course, 

 other gains equally real, but the great chemist we have 

 quoted was speaking from the matter and motion 

 standpoint. It is one of the great facts about our race — 

 to be set against some disappointing features — that 

 every year increases man's mastery of the physical 

 forces. He taps one reservoir after another, and 

 slowly learns economy. He annihilates distance with 

 his deep devices, he makes the ether carry his messages, 

 he coins wealth out of the thin air, he journeys through 

 the sky and beneath the waves of the sea. With science 

 as torch Man has already done great things ; and why 

 should we think that he has more than begun to enter 

 into his kingdom ? As regards the domain of things, 

 every year adds fresh illustrations to the saying of the 

 poet Herbert, " Man is one world, and hath another to 

 attend him." It is not, however, within our present 

 scope to follow further what we have illustrated in the 

 first chapter of this book. But there is one caution that 

 the biologist must not leave unsaid. No one can suppose 

 that all Man does in the field of physical operations is 

 equally commendable. Within the physical domain 

 itself there is the criterion that the exploitation should 

 not waste materials or energies ; and that criterion has 

 not always been attended to. But from outside the 

 domain comes the criterion that we must ask how the 



