Science in Public Affairs 



struggles between Church and State, the conflicts 

 between ruling classes with their rival interests, 

 the nations of Europe have arrived, or are in 

 course of arriving, at the simple but neglected dis- 

 covery that the prime function of a government 

 is to secure the well-being of the people who 

 live under it. They have sometimes learned this 

 lesson in the school of turmoil, and sometimes in 

 the quieter and more gradual course of political 

 enfranchisement. But in the end it has become 

 impossible to us as in other times it has not 

 been impossible to think of any other object 

 which a civilised government could justifiably 

 prefer to the improvement of the life that is lived 

 under its guidance by its people. 



With the growth of this humanistic conception 

 of government another tendency has co-operated. 

 The area of scientific knowledge has widened and 

 the ambitions of science have grown. Not only 

 have the sciences from mathematics to biology, 

 and the arts from mensuration to medicine, become 

 more extended in their range and more definite in 

 their use, but there has been a steady and rapid 

 growth in the application of scientific methods 

 to the study of human life itself individual and 

 social. Human society, in all its aspects, has 

 become more and more a subject of scientific 

 study; and the sciences and their corresponding 

 arts are increasingly expected to contribute to 

 social well-being. 



The net result of these two tendencies is that 

 government is more and more bound to make 



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