RATIONALISM AND SCIENCE 65 



stream of tendency which bears us all along. If 

 we are passive we move on steadily. If we 

 resist, we may swim against the stream, but it is 

 difficult and a constant drain of energy. If we 

 swim with the stream we move fast. It is by 

 swimming against the stream, very often, that 

 character and personality are made. But our 

 lives are short; and in the long run the stream 

 has its way with communities if not with indi- 

 viduals. Our efficiency, and especially our effi- 

 ciency in societies, depends greatly on going 

 rather with than against the current. 



It was necessary thus to map out the ground, in 

 order to lead up to the things on which I really 

 want to insist. The corollaries which follow the 

 truths which I have outlined are not regarded as 

 truisms. And it seems to me of great importance 

 that they should be brought forward on occasions 

 like the present, when a broad outlook on the 

 great problems of life is specially in place. Pro- 

 gress, I have maintained, consists in the absorp- 

 tion into the frame of society of practical impulses 

 or ideas. These ideas must be justified by 

 appeals to accepted principles and to experience. 

 And it is of the utmost importance that the ideas 

 themselves should be in harmony with the laws 

 of human nature, and that their working in the 

 world should be seen as it really is. In all these 

 respects in our days great difficulties arise from 

 the character of our civilization and the existing 

 habits of thought. 



