MODERN SCIENCE 5 



the occupants of a modern city. Helium gas for use in 

 balloons, other new substances for modern explosives 

 and killing gases these are instruments of destruc- 

 tion which will completely change warfare in its meth- 

 ods. Even modern battleships are now said to be 

 obsolete, since none is protected against modern scien- 

 tific bombs. Helium carried dirigibles may go anywhere 

 and drop destructive gases hundreds, even thousands, 

 of miles from the base of operations. 



The achievements of science are very great both in 

 their number and in the magnitude of their influences. 

 Tremendously powerful for good and for ill as are the 

 material advantages gained through modern science, it 

 is possible that still greater advantages may be gained 

 through certain attitudes of thinking, judging, and 

 acting which modern science is patiently teaching to a 

 slowly learning human race. It is but a little while, 

 in the comparative history of men, since those who dis- 

 agreed too loudly with generally accepted ideas were 

 put to death. This was done presumably to show 

 others the terrible results of permitting one's thinking 

 processes to lead him to unconventional conclusions. 

 If a daring honest mind led one to say that the earth 

 is round, not flat, this thinker's life had to be taken, lest 

 his heresy should be accepted by others. If a patriot 

 questioned the divine rights of the king, this patriot was 

 thought to be dangerous to the common good. If one 

 claimed the right and accepted the responsibility of 

 thinking through and acting according to his own 

 conclusions regarding spiritual problems, his life was 

 endangered because his thinking might undo the sys- 



