238 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



health and pleasant houses to dwell in. We cannot 

 be equally interested in all three kinds of amelioration, 

 but we have ceased to disparage our neighbour's enthu- 

 siasm because it is not ours. 



Science as Torch.— We must pause at this point to 

 re-emphasise the idea that the hopefulness of the modern 

 vision of the old ideals to which we have been referring 

 lies in a slowly growing appreciation of the value of 

 Science as torch. If Man is to win his kingdom, it must 

 be in part by putting more brains into the campaign. 

 By brains we here mean primarily scientific control — 

 that is to say, control based on knowledge — ^verifiable 

 and communicable knowledge — gained from actual 

 experience of the things, the forces, the lives, or the 

 societies to be controlled. Science is truly a crystallised 

 systematisation of observed sequences — (" If this, then 

 that ") like Newton's Principia ; but it is more. It is 

 a living thing, like Philosophy ; it is a life. 



The common phrase " a knowledge of science " betrays 

 a misunderstanding. There are, of course, fundamental 

 facts and laws to be mastered, and they become part 

 and parcel of the expert, — ^the permanent furniture of 

 his mind ; but beyond a certain limit of convenience no 

 wise man dreams of increasing this furniture except at 

 a particular time for a particular purpose. The root of 

 the matter is a habit of mind which insists on getting at 

 the facts in regard to any particular problem, which 

 knows the methods of getting at the facts, which has 

 a high standard of accuracy, which is disciplined to 

 criticise inferences from facts and is alert to detect 



