4 SCIENCE AND LIFE 



The results of a sudden acquisition of wealth 

 without effort, or with a relative minimum of effort, 

 are proverbial, and science, that has secured wealth 

 beyond precedent and promises wealth beyond 

 belief, has till now been too closely pursued by the 

 proverbial results. But is the whole accumulated 

 wisdom of the ages really sterile and impotent before 

 this problem of how to use wealth, of how to secure 

 that a greater part of the sum-total of increased 

 material resources shall be made to contribute to 

 the sum-total of human happiness ? For at present, 

 it has not only shown itself powerless to bring about 

 this result, but it is, an uncharitable observer might 

 conclude, in league with the other side, and is active, 

 so far as it is active at all, in ensuring that the 

 improvement in material conditions shall increase 

 the sum-total of human misery. 



THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The statesman from whom the writer has ventured 

 to borrow the quotation at the head of this article, 

 showed a rare insight into the character of the 

 world movement which has followed the application 

 of scientific discovery, and was able to penetrate 

 beneath the superficial consequences " appropriately 

 associated with materialism and greed." Something 

 " seriously to be ranked with religion and patriotism 

 as an important force for raising men's lives above 

 what is small, personal and self-centred," "a source 

 not merely of material convenience but of spiritual 

 elevation " was hinted at from a remote standpoint, 

 over and beyond the nearer prospect of "smoky 

 cities, polluted rivers and desecrated landscapes." 

 But those who can take a nearer, narrower and less 

 clouded view, feel as though they had " stared at the 

 Pacific." For, from the point of vantage attained 



