NATURE 
337 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1897. 
SCIENCE AND MORALITY.—IN THE YEAR 
2000, 
Science et Morale. Par M. Berthelot. 
(Paris : Calmann Lévy, 1897.) 
HOSE who wish to gain some idea of the spirit 
animating scientific workers in France at the 
present day may study with advantage this new proof of 
the inexhaustible energy of the marvellously versatile 
perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. The 
book is for the most part a collection of essays on 
biographical, educational, historical and philosophical 
subjects, together with addresses, letters, and speeches 
on similar matters; although of unequal interest and 
importance, these will in many cases more than repay 
careful perusal and examination. 
It is the work of a very remarkable man—one of the 
most remarkable of our time—who describes his own 
career most truly when he says :— 
Pp. xii + 515. 
“Depuis cinquante ans, je recherche les connaissances 
des choses avec une curiosité et une sympathie infinies.” 
Infinite curiosity and infinite sympathy—although both 
qualities that should characterise all scientific workers— 
are too seldom sufficiently developed in one individual, 
the latter especially being often strangely absent: the 
study of a man in whom such qualities are conjoined is 
therefore interesting in many ways, and becomes .the 
more so as the conviction grows that he is a striking 
example of a type of mind altogether rare. 
A student in his laboratory during the earlier years of 
his life, since 1870, when the desire to serve his country 
in the hour of her great need led him to enter the public 
service, he has taken part in the work of national defence, 
of public instruction and of general politics, attaining 
recently to the high rank of Minister of Foreign Affairs— 
besides continuing with unremitting ardour the researches 
which have made his name famous throughout the 
scientific world. : 
The first to show that the natural fats could be arti- 
ficially prepared from acids and glycerol; the first to 
study the great group of vegetable oils, the turpentines, 
scientifically ; the first to establish (in 1859) the ex- 
istence of acetylene as a definite compound, and the 
discoverer of the method of producing it directly from 
carbon and hydrogen: of late years he has devoted his 
attention chiefly to thermochemical inquiries, and has 
rendered lasting service especially by the invention of 
the calorimetric bomb—one of the most ingenious instru- 
ments of scientific research ever devised. 
Moreover, recognising that 
“En toutes choses, c’est en remontant aux origines 
que l’on arrive 4 mieux comprendre |’etat présent,” 
he has devoted himself with surprising assiduity also 
to the study of ancient Arabic, Greek and other writers 
from whom information could be gleaned of the history 
of scientific discovery. 
The ultimate predominance of science in all human 
affairs is the key-note sounded throug” oit the volume 
this being carried in the final essay to a point beyond 
NO. 1424, VOL. 55] 
which even writers of fiction have scarcely dared to 
travel. 
“La science domine tout : elle rend seule des services 
définitifs. _Nulle homme, nulle institution désormais 
naura une autorité durable, s'il ne se conforme a ses 
enseignements !” 
These, the closing words of the preface, are words of in- 
dubitable truth ; yet how few there are who will thoroughly 
appreciate their importance and significance—who will 
understand the fz/7 meaning of the word science: were 
it appreciated at all generally, how much more might be 
accomplished even with our present imperfect means ! 
The conviction that such is the case should at least lead 
us to do our utmost to make the doctrine intelligible and 
popular; and to this end attention may be drawn to 
M. Berthelot as a most powerful and engaging witness. 
“La Science et la Morale,” the opening chapter in 
the book, is a vigorous and eloquent essay in which the 
thesis is maintained that morality has no other basis 
than that which science furnishes : that progress, past 
and present, of morality, both in the case of individuals 
and of society, has been and always will be correlative 
with the progress of science. Frankly hostile to all 
theories of the divine origin of moral laws, M. Berthelot, 
in fact, is the outspoken advocate of the view that man is 
himself the source of morality. 
“ homme trouve la morale en lui-méme et il l’objec- 
tive en l’attribuant a la divinité.” 
And a determined enemy of the ecclesiastical spirit, 
although less militant and incisive perhaps, he insensibly 
reminds us in many ways of Huxley-—both having the 
same object in view and the same hatred of false pretence 
and unscientific method. 4 
The next essay of importance, entitled “La Science 
Educatrice,” written apparently in 1891, deals with the 
crisis in secondary education consequent on the revolution 
going on in France as elsewhere against an exclusively 
classical system, and in favour of the introduction of 
science as anecessaryelement. Although the arguments 
used are very largely those with which we are familiar, 
being presented with the literary grace peculiar to the 
skilful French writer, the article is one that may be 
read with pleasure as well as studied with profit. The 
history of secondary education in France is sketched in 
a most interesting manner, and the many faults of the 
present system are clearly recognised and pointed out, 
as well as the reasons for instituting changes. 
M. Berthelot, of course, insists that scientific studies 
should be made correlative with other studies from the 
outset. He also dwells on the capital importance of 
science to the moral as well as the intellectual education 
of humanity. 
“Thabitude de raisonner et de réfléchfr sur les choses, 
le respect inébranlable de la vérité et lobligation de 
sincliner toujours devant les lois nécessaires du monde 
extérieur, communiquent a l’esprit une empreinte ineffac- 
| able. Elles ’accoutument & respecter les lois de la société, 
aussi bien que celles de la nature, et a concevoir les 
droits et le respect d’autrui comme une forme meme 
de son propre droit et de sa propre indépendance 
personelle.” 
Q 
