92 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



further than to the last general election, it was 

 very notable how on most platforms the appeal 

 was to results and consequences. The average 

 man is being more and more completely trained 

 to the notion that there is a fixed order in the 

 world, and that events do not happen at random. 

 He is now ready in matters of physical science to 

 take the word of those who have been trained, 

 those who really know. He does not perhaps yet 

 recognize so completely that the events of history 

 and of human society may also be matters of 

 definite knowledge, and considering how unripe 

 is most of the fruit of the knowledge of mankind 

 which is offered him, we can scarcely wonder that 

 he does not altogether relish it. That only shews 

 how much remains to be done in this field. We 

 are used to hearing men set forth the patent evils 

 of society, and then at once leap to the propound- 

 ing of some remedy warranted to set everything 

 right. It is the same procedure with which we are 

 familiar in the advertisements of quack medi- 

 cines. ' Do you feel languid, out of spirits ; have 

 you internal pains? Then try our pill or our 

 ointment.' In the same way those who see the 

 evils of modern society jump at some remedy, 

 some form of socialism it may be, or eugenics, or 

 female suffrage; and set it up as a general 

 remedy. The intermediate stage of studying in 

 what particular way each evil may be met they 

 overlook. What has to be insisted upon is that 

 between the perception of an evil and the pro- 



