20 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, nor am I 

 related by blool or marriage to any prophet or son of a prophet. 

 This age may be as badly ia need of prophets as any other age, 

 but what it needs most of all is common sense methods of deal- 

 ing with the problems that confront it. It seems to me we may 

 profitably spend a little time in the consideration of some of the 

 bearings of scientific methods on current thought and action. 



What is the scientific spirit? Some would say it is the spirit 

 of the age. But it may well be doubted whether there is such 

 a thing as a spirit of the age. With people and their wants so 

 diverse, the general iastability of chaaging institutions make a 

 universal animating spirit well nigh impossible. Bat the sci- 

 entific spirit is something definite and characteristic. We may 

 notice some of the things it is not. Ih is not the mere seeking 

 for truth, for many who seek the truth are content with half 

 truths. It is not enthusiasm, fcr the enthusiast too often stands 

 in his own light. It is not the mere collecting of data, for facts 

 and the records of facts in themselves are well nigh worthless. 

 The scitntific spirit seeks to demonstrate no proposition; it is 

 not partisan. In short, the man imbued with the scientific spirit 

 seeks the whole truth in all its relations, and accepts its teach- 

 ings rc-girdless of consequences. 



We need to scrutinize very carefully a large amount of the 

 so called science aad scieatific methods of to day. The word 

 scientist, has become a sort of abrakadabra, by means of which 

 men hope to conjure up the objects of their hopes and desires. 

 Science is too often interpreted as the triumph of shrewdness 

 over simplicity, tne hoodwinking of the ignorant and innocent by 

 the irgenious sharper, or the successful defeat of an opponent 

 through chicanery. So far is this carrie d sometimes that we are 

 ready to parajihrase that famous expression of Madame Roland 

 and exclaim, "O, science what crimes have been committed in 

 thy name." Any addition to our knowledge that does not afl:ect 

 and improve all classes orAy lov-ers relatively the under strata 

 of society; any advance in science which does not adapt itself to 

 the masses only renders Ihem more helpless in the hands of the 

 unprincipled but more intelligent. Science and scientific meth- 

 ods are not for the few, but for the many. We must not assume 

 that scientific methods have no place in common affairs. The 

 scientific spirit is not a new but an old factor in human pro- 

 gress. Bat we are too much inclined to relegate science and 

 scientific procedures to the specialist, the scientist, and as the 



