THE SERENE EVANGEL OF SCIENCE 1 65 



that tide is the task now imposed on our heroism, to elevate and 

 purify and refine the race, to introduce the ideal of quality in place 

 of the ideal of quantity which has run riot so long, with the results 

 we see." And with all the thoughtful care now being devoted to the 

 regeneration of humanity from a physical basis, the work will hence- 

 forth speed apace. 



Then, granted a race that has been developed in this enlighten- 

 ment, the further task of science and social economics will be com- 

 paratively light. Even if the physicist never succeeds in connecting 

 civilization with the illimitable source of power dimly described in 

 intra-atomic energy, even if he should never be able to harness the 

 tides, or fully utilize the rays of the sun, yet the improving methods of 

 production will soon provide abundance for all. Indeed, in our own 

 thriving land it is a question whether this stage has not been reached 

 already, and whether the problem is not largely one of equitable 

 distribution. In any event, this latter difficulty will some day remain 

 alone, and who can doubt that it will find an early solution ? Surely 

 it is not undue optimism to expect that we shall attain at least the 

 success of Mr. Stefansson's friendly Esquimaux villages, where the 

 huts that had meat sent thereof to those that had none. We may 

 shrink instinctively from such a word as Socialism, with the regrettable 

 connotation it has developed in the United States, or even such words 

 as Socialized Democracy; but under another name, or no name, the 

 coming century will see some realization of the dreams of men like 

 William Morris, who caught the shadows of the future mirrored on 

 the dying past. Howbeit, the new society will not prove to be what 

 any of our vaticinating socialists have predicted; for it will assume 

 unforeseeable aspects to meet unforeseeable needs and conditions. 

 It will certainly be more widely different from our present conjectures 

 than the glowing vision of G. Lowes Dickinson is different from the 

 dead and definite system of Babceuf. And, doubtless, when it does 

 come, many men will wonder why the past erred so widely in fore- 

 casting its details, whereas more men, of the type of Herbert Spencer 

 and Mr. Mallock, will wonder why they were so fearful of its coming. 

 But whatever form it may assume, I am sure it will be possible to 



