Household Science. 95 



tering to the everyday welfare of mankind. Some 

 extracts from the Introduction to the Handbook ably 

 summarize some of the author's favourite views on 

 this point : 



It deserves to be better understood that the highest 

 value of science is derived from its power of advancing the 

 public good. It is more and more to be consecrated to 

 human improvement as a sublime regenerative agency. 

 Working jointly and harmoniously with the great moral 

 forces of Christian civilization, we believe it is destined to 

 effect extensive social ameliorations. That it is not yet 

 fully accepted in this relation is hardly surprising. The 

 work of presenting scientific truth in those forms which 

 may best engage the popular mind is not to be fairly ex- 

 pected of those who give their lives to its original develop- 

 ment. . . . Conscious that the effects of his labours are 

 finally and always beneficial in society, the enthusiast of 

 research may be excused his indifference to their immediate 

 reception and uses. But the formal denial that the alle- 

 giance of mind is supremely due to the good of society is 

 quite another affair. The sentiment, too widely entertained 

 in learned and educational circles, that knowledge is to be 

 firstly and chiefly prized for its own sake and the mental 

 gratification it produces, we cannot accept. The view 

 seems narrow and illiberal, and is not inspired of human 

 sympathy. It took origin in the times when the improve- 

 ment of man's condition, his general education and eleva- 

 tion, were not dreamed of. It came from the ancient 

 philosophy, which was not a dispensation of popular benefi- 

 cence, an all-diffusive, ennobling agency in society, but 

 confessed its highest aim to be a personal advantage, shut 

 up in the individual soul. It was not radiant and outflow- 

 ing like the sun, but drew all things inward, engulfing them 

 in a maelstrom of selfishness. 



The baneful ethics of this philosophy have given place 



