84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



place, did not seem to him to be quite fairly stated. People speak as 

 though vivisection were a recent practice, just introduced by a hard- 

 hearted scientific generation. But, in point of fact, vivisection had 

 been going on for many centuries. The thing which was new was the 

 objection to it. The stock argument in favor of vivisection — that by 

 it the discovery of the circulation of the blood was made — is only one 

 of many instances. 



" It had been remarked by a previous speaker, with whom he was 

 inclined to agree, that there had been a great increase in humanity in 

 modern times, and that this increase is to be attributed to the growth 

 of science. It is not true, for instance, to say that the abolition of 

 excessive and cruel punishments has been due to the action of a few 

 energetic but unscientific individuals. They were, on the contrary, put 

 down by the growth of the scientific spirit of the age — a Spirit closely 

 allied to humanity, and which showed itself in the philosophy of the 

 eighteenth century, especially in the writings of Hume and Bentham. 

 They gave up the idea of punishment as simply a revenge to gratify 

 the feelings of the punishers, and took the utilitarian ground that it 

 must only be administered in so far as it is beneficial to society. They 

 were thus inevitably drawn into denouncing excessive punishments. 

 Romilly, who had been cited by the other side, was probably a pupil 

 of that school ; and certainly Bentham and Mill were, who really 

 spread the principles which led to the abolition of excessive punish- 

 ment. And those principles were only the principles of science ap- 

 plied to morality. 



" Though he admired our ancestors of the sixteenth century, he 

 felt bound to admit that they were a brutal lot. An instance of how 

 far we have improved in point of humanity is to be seen in ' Roder- 

 ick Random.' After having reduced his young, amiable, and beloved 

 hero to very great straits through ' dissipation,' Smollett makes him 

 go to India to purchase a lot of slaves, whom he sells in America at a 

 large profit. This we should consider brutal and degrading conduct, 

 and the fact that we do so consider it marks the great improvement 

 which has taken place in our morality. It is quite true that it is not 

 merely the growth of science, but the general intellectual develop- 

 ment of the country, which has put a stop to cruelty ; but it is equally 

 true that the growth of science is an integral part of that development, 

 and one that can not be separated from it. None of these things 

 would have been possible unless the intellect had widened ; and sci- 

 ence has helped to do this. We may hope for similar good results 

 from the application of science to other things ; for example, to poli- 

 tics, where there is little enough of scientific principles at present. 



" On the religious question I can only say this," Mr. Stephen re- 

 marked in conclusion, " that you have got this plain dilemma to face, 

 which can not be avoided. In the first place, if any religion, or reli- 

 gious belief, is true, what can the holders of it have to fear from the 



