Decembeb S, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



821 



thinking and estimates of value during the 

 last decade beyond anything I can here tell. 

 Enough to say that the scientific inquiry which 

 has long been in the forefront of my interest, 

 that namely of what the real constitution of 

 nature must be in order that it may include 

 man in the full scope of his being, has be- 

 come wonderfully specific and real by having 

 this remarkable subject under almost con- 

 stant observation for so long a period. This 

 perhaps more than any one factor has led me 

 to conclude that the system of nature is, as by 

 instinct almost Mr. Scripps appears to take it, 

 much more intimately and vitally related to 

 man than our modern philosophy or even our 

 science usually recognizes. 



Science has made great headway latterly in 

 proving that man is a part of nature; but it 

 has not done much toward understanding what 

 nature is because man is a part of it. 



The exceedingly unfortunate doctrine into 

 which so much of western civilization has 

 fallen, that everything about man which is 

 esteemed supremely good is no part of his real 

 nature but is supernatural (teaching of Chris- 

 tian theology) or is a by-product, an " epiphe- 

 nomenon " (teaching of neo-Darwinian biol- 

 ogy) nowhere finds more positive refutation 

 than in such individuals as Mr. Scripps, 

 whether we observe them as types of organic 

 beings or consider their views about nature 

 and science. 



Such reflections have led me to endorse 

 heartily his views that the human species 

 taken exactly as it is and in the entire scope 

 of its life, must be a subject for biological 

 study; and to share his ambitions and inten- 

 tions that the Scripps Institution shall after 

 a while make some aspect of human biology 

 thus conceived one of its departments of re- 

 search. Those transcendent concerns of 

 civilized man, the relation between the sexes, 

 war, economics, patriotism, government, esthet- 

 ics, ethics and religion, can never be treated 

 with that freedom from prejudice and personal 

 interest by which alone general truths can be 

 rightly understood and appraised, excepting 

 through the attainment of that attitude toward 

 the tasks which characterizes the biologist in 



his dealing with problems of organisms 

 inferior to man. This at least is the convic- 

 tion we have reached after wide observation 

 of instances and much theoretical discussion. 

 And why in the nature of things should it not 

 be possible to reach such an attitude toward 

 the purely rational aspects of human problems ? 

 If man really is a part of nature, as biology 

 confidently affirms that he is, how escape recog- 

 nizing that if a bird's nest is a proper object 

 for biological inquiry, an Eskimo's snow hut 

 and a millionaire's palace are also? Or that 

 if the mating antics of two spiders are biolog- 

 ical phenomena, the Virginia reel and the 

 tango are likewise? Or that if a bird chorus 

 on a spring morning falls within the province ' 

 of ornithological biology, a symphony concert 

 falls within the province of anthropological 

 biology? And it should be specially noticed 

 that the fact that each of these sets of phe- 

 nomena falls within the province of general 

 biology does not by any means remove them 

 from more restricted and specialized inquiry. 

 The general biologist whose studies lead him 

 to birds' nests or the courtship of spiders or 

 the song of birds, not only is not disposed to 

 supplant specialists in these subjects, but is 

 led to recognize more than ever the importance 

 and indispens ability of their labors. Just as 

 the general biologist who should come upon 

 the subjects of social wasps or singing birds, 

 could not do much without the help of spe- 

 cialists in these subjects, so the biologist who 

 upon occasion should turn to social or musical 

 humans, would be almost helpless without the 

 aid of experts in human society and human 

 music. 



Much as we believe in the utility of biology 

 to industry, hygiene, eugenics and the rest of 

 man's material welfare, a thousand times more 

 do we believe in its utility to his higher inter- 

 ests, especially just now when " Christian 

 civilization " seems bent upon putting into 

 practise the monstrously perverted biological 

 theory of survival of the fittest, and destroying 

 itself through military and economic war. 



Concerning what Mr. Scripps's business ex- 

 perience and acumen have meant for the phys- 

 ical development of the institution, I will be 



