August 23, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



231 



grade fuel results in low-grade work, and 

 he recognizes the fact that proper lubrica- 

 tion is essential. He knows these things 

 and employs his knowledge in working his 

 engines, and he too often apparently for- 

 gets that the human body is a machine, the 

 most complicated, and under favorable con- 

 ditions the most efficient one in the world. 

 I believe in the ascent of man from lower 

 forms of animal life, and we need not look 

 back very far to see the low level from 

 which he has climbed. Indeed we need not 

 look back at all. The mass of mankind 

 even in the civilized world is diseased, ig- 

 norant and immoral. We say that this is 

 an enlightened age, and that we live in a 

 civilized land, all of which is true, but 

 enlightenment and civilization are relative 

 terms and cover widely different condi- 

 tions. Physical health has been improved 

 in the past century. Epidemics have been 

 held in abeyance by scientific agencies. 

 The average life has been prolonged, and 

 the material conditions of life have been 

 greatly advanced. Learning is gradually 

 extending its boundaries, and productive 

 scholarship is reaping rich harvests, to the 

 great benefit of the race. Scholasticism no 

 longer dominates our educational institu- 

 tions, and research is busy clearing away 

 the jungles and draining the swamps of 

 ignorance and superstition. Man is appre- 

 ciating his moral obligations more fully 

 than he has ever done in the past. All 

 these things are true, but disease still takes 

 a heavy toll; ignorance still opposes ad- 

 vance, and moral tyrannies are still prac- 

 tised. When we look down into the depths 

 from which man has climbed, even since 

 historical records began, and where many 

 of our kind still linger, we shudder, but 

 when we look up to the heights to which he 

 may still go we are filled with hope and 

 ■joy. Then when we realize that each one 

 may contribute to the progress of the race. 



the problem of life impresses upon us a 

 hopeful seriousness, and a buoyant deter- 

 mination that though the task be great it is 

 one well worth the effort. 



Men are mortal, but man is immortal. 

 The individual has only an ephemeral ex- 

 istence, but the germinal cell continues 

 through all generations. The somatic man 

 constitutes the temporary environment of 

 the germ cell, and it is fortunate that the 

 former has only a slight influence on the 

 latter, but it is this slight influence which, 

 multiplied though many generations, be- 

 comes the great and central moving force 

 of evolution. This individual influence on 

 the race is not coirfined to the direct line, 

 but a man through his words and deeds 

 may give direction to the growth of his 

 neighbor, and on those to come from that 

 neighbor. With this understanding, life is 

 ennobled and impregnated with a divinity 

 of which no religion has dreamed. It 

 shows the brotherhood and interdependence 

 of all men. It makes of the individual a 

 unit, and an important factor in the great 

 drama of creation. It makes the individ- 

 ual conscious of his duties and arms him 

 with the means to perform them. It gives 

 to the individual worth and dignity far 

 beyond that conferred upon him by those 

 philosophies the central doctrine of which 

 is the hope of future reward, or the fear of 

 future punishment. It is a practical, 

 working philosophy which, when thor- 

 oughly understood and practised, will 

 bring peace, good will, and brotherly love 

 to all peoples of the earth. It does not 

 lead to an imaginary heaven with streets 

 paved witV "-old and precious stones, but it 

 will bring to the earth and all that dwell 

 therein a life of joy and righteousness. 



The philosophy of science concerns itself 

 with this world and with this life. It 

 reaches every condition of life. It should 

 pervade all our notions and influence all 



