90 THE NEW METHOD 



through the personal possession of scientific knowl- 

 edge. Among those who have been thoroughly and 

 symmetrically cultured in science, there is but one 

 opinion as to its value. What is a contrary opinion 

 worth, which is not based upon such culture ? Many 

 of our colleges practically ignore science, and gradu- 

 ate young men who know less of it than boys of ten 

 years ought to know and do know in some parts of 

 Europe. Your children labor through twelve years 

 of school life, and after all graduate in worse than 

 Egyptian darkness respecting the most useful of all 

 knowledge, such as all people would use, if they pos- 

 sessed it, every da}' of their lives. 



" It does seem to me strange, to use the mildest 

 word, that people whose destiny it is to live, even for 

 a few short years, on this planet which we call the 

 earth, and who intend to live as comfortably and 

 wholesomely as they can, should in general be so 

 careless about the constitution of this same planet, 

 and of the laws and facts on which depend, not 

 merely their comfort and their wealth, but their 

 health and their very lives, and the health and the 

 lives of their children and descendants. . . . 



"But as for mankind thriving by common-sense : 

 they have not thriven by common-sense, because 

 they have not used their common-sense according to 

 that regulated method which is called science. In 

 no age, in no country, as yet, have the majority of 

 mankind been guided, I will not say by the love of 



