RATIONALISM AND SCIENCE 83 



III. 



When we consider how rapid has been the pro- 

 gress in recent times of physical and biological 

 sciences, and realize how slow in comparison has 

 been the progress in the knowledge of man, we 

 may almost despair. We can scarcely say that, 

 in many important respects, we know more of the 

 nature of human well-being than was known by 

 Aristotle. Yet in some countries, more especi- 

 ally in Germany and America, at least the magni- 

 tude of the task and the infinite importance of 

 reaching sound and trustworthy results are 

 beginning to be recognised. 



As the nineteenth century was the great age of 

 discovery in the sciences of nature, so, I venture 

 to prophesy, the twentieth century will be the 

 great age of discovery in human science. Com- 

 pared with our mastery of the forces of nature, 

 our mastery of ourselves and our destiny is in an 

 infantile stage. We see how utterly defective 

 are the arrangements of society around us. We 

 see how our medicine is capable of grappling with 

 definite diseases, but has no ideal of human 

 health, how our skill produces an infinite mass of 

 wealth, and then distributes it in a way that is 

 simply appalling. We see how marriage remains 

 at the mercy of the worst regulated impulses of 

 our nature, without any thought of the future of 

 the race. We see how charitable feelings to- 

 wards our fellow men, instead of being a raising 



