348 CIVIC BIOLOGY 



right, as any child of the nation can test as often as he pleases. 

 The great lack is that we are not educated to know and to 

 utilize the resources for knowing how that belong to us. 

 Another great difficulty is that the world is flooded with 

 fake, false, selfish-motived misinformation, and we need to 

 learn to shun all bad and second-rate sources of truth as we 

 would poisoned wells. In proportion as one uses the best 

 sources of information, he will develop the power to discrimi- 

 nate and to detect the bad. Civic biology should, first of all, 

 save us from fake solutions of our health problems. 



No, Mrs. Bonebrake, I am not going to try your religions fad in 

 order to heal my sore feet ; no, Mrs. Hardscrabble, I will not use your 

 number rigmarole to improve my prospects ; and no, Mrs. Likenbower, 

 I will not wear your amulet to get rid of my rheumatism. 



Why ? Well, because I am honest. I may not be very holy or soul- 

 emancipated, but I pride myself on being an honest man. 



And I'm going to be as honest with myself as I am with my neighbor. 



The fundamental ethics is the ethics of the intellect. 



And that means that I will believe only upon examining the facts. 

 My judgment shall remain absolutely automatic, and shall bend only 

 by weight of evidence. 



I shall not say I believe a thing just to see if it will not help me. 



I shall refuse to proclaim a faith in order to help anybody else. 



Ladies, you touch the quick of my virtue. T will not be disloyal to 

 my reason no, not even to get to heaven. 



History is full of pious and learned men who put expediency before 

 honesty. They did not believe what they professed they did not even 

 understand it ; but they said they did, because they thought it would 

 aid others, would not offend the weak, and would save their own 

 souls. 



But I will take my chances with intellectual integrity alongside of 

 all the earnest souls who deceived themselves and everybody else be- 

 cause, so doing, they verily thought they were doing the will of heaven. 



I know, Mrs. Bonebrake, you claim that your peculiar faith, resting 

 upon a plain denial of facts, has healed many ; so, Mrs. Ilardscrabble, 

 your cabala ; and so, Mrs. Likenbower, your amulet. Why not try it ? 

 It has benefited others ; why not me ? 



