APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY 5 



from the foremost outskirts of physical science, there 

 lies in full view a realm till now untrodden by mortals 

 even in their dreams the promise of power to fulfil 

 ambitions as yet latent, wealth and energy adequate 

 to eliminate for ever the struggle for existence on its 

 physical side, strength, at least in great measure, to 

 make of life whatsoever we will. Even the probable 

 route forward can be dimly made out, the way the 

 pioneers will most likely pursue to enter the promised 

 land. And then ? 



Judging from past experience, from the uses to 

 which the enlarged opportunities and dominance 

 already conferred by physical science have been put, 

 is it so certain that man is ripe for such a myriad- 

 fold multiplication of his physical powers? Apart 

 altogether from war, what would the unscientific 

 wisdom of the age make of the golden opportunity 

 more publicly beneficial than more millionaires and 

 more slums? There arises the challenge: Is there 

 a single practical branch of human thought or know- 

 ledge which has been left untouched, nay, more, 

 which has not been altered to its very foundations, 

 by the progress of science ? The education of those 

 to whom for the most part is entrusted the happi- 

 ness and destiny of nations ceases where it should 

 begin. 



For a modern ruler the laws of the conservation 

 and transformation of energy, whence the vivifying 

 stream takes its source, the ways it wends its course 

 in nature, and how, under wisdom and knowledge, it 

 may be intertwined with human destiny, instead of 

 careering headlong to the ocean, are a study at least 

 as pregnant with consequences to life as any lesson 

 taught by the long unscientific history of man. The 

 essential public questions of the day find in such 

 modern advances a suggestive and connected inter- 

 pretation. 



