556 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1276 



plicated and involved that conclusions of 

 mucli 'breadth, in either field are unreliable 

 when they pass ^beyond a few major underly- 

 ing principles. The mass of detail in each 

 field is too great for us to have much confi- 

 dence that we have successfully digested it. 



There are some of us who are beginning to 

 feel that the supreme blunder of human so- 

 ciety is in allowing unrestricted breeding 

 under conditions that even encourage, in fact, 

 a relatively large production of the less desir- 

 able types of men. But I do not care to dis- 

 cuss eugenics at this time. 



Is this list of social blunders sufficient to 

 emphasize my point of the need for free-think- 

 ing men who approach a subject without un- 

 due bias, gathering and weighing data impar- 

 tially, testing all things in the search for the 

 truth and holding fast that which is shown to 

 be good, good for society, without too much 

 thought of its relation to what may be their 

 own selfish interests? Is it not evident that 

 "Denmark" is not the only state in which 

 there is much of unsoundness? Could any 

 mental attitude be more unjustified than that 

 which led a certain philosopher^ to say — 

 " Whatever is is right " ? It would be nearer 

 true to say — " Whatever is is wrong : the ques- 

 tion is how wrong ? " 



The study of science, if properly conducted, 

 and the study of other subjects by the scien- 

 tific method, tend to free the mind from tradi- 

 tion and to lead one out into larger outlooks. 

 One general type of scientific study, especially, 

 seems to have this liberating, enlarging effect. 

 I mean study in those fields of science in which 

 the outworking from cause to effect occupies 

 such immense, unthinkable stretches of time 

 that the element of time loses its interest. 

 Evolutionary studies, whether of living things 

 or of Earth forms or stellar systems, involve 

 such unthinkable lapses of time that the stji- 

 dent neglects the time element and focuses 

 his attention rather on the outworking of the 

 principles involved. The economist or so- 

 ciologist thinks usually in years or decades. 

 The student of organic evolution, the geolo- 

 gist, the astronomer, rarely thinks in terms of 



3 Pope. 



time and when he does his time is measured 

 in seons not in years. His thought centers in 

 the outworking of the influences in operation 

 and not upon the time it takes them to reach 

 their goal. The oppositions to be overcome, 

 the delays to be met, by these cosmic forces 

 mean little or nothing. The student in these 

 subjects comes to despise time as an element 

 in his problems. The field is too vast for time 

 to be of any interest. It is the principles in- 

 volved, the outworking relations between phe- 

 nomena, that command his thought. 



Might it not be worth while to think occa- 

 sionally of our economic and social problems in 

 this same spirit, omitting time, ignoring the 

 oppositions to be overcome, and dwelling 

 rather upon the underlying truths and their 

 ultimate, logical, necessary outworking?* 

 Truth is mighty and will prevail. When 

 once it stands revealed, nothing can perma- 

 nently stay its progress. Human prejudice and 

 conservatism can only delay for a period, but 

 not indefinitely. Why not do some of our social 

 thinking in terms not of years or of decades 

 but rather in terms of decades of centuries, 

 freeing our minds from the shackles of the 

 immediate with its confusion and its ob- 

 stacles, and rising to the vision of things as 

 they are and their necessary ultimate out- 

 working? Let truth emancipate us with her 

 free spirit, giving us to see beyond the pres- 

 ent detail. In my twenty years of teaching I 

 have watched many a student of organic 

 evolution catching this broader view and 

 learning, in his attitude to life and its prob- 

 lems, not to dwell wholly amid the details 

 of the present but to appreciate as well some- 

 thing of the timeless march of the principles 

 of truth. 



If one has caught this idea and has spent 

 occasional periods in the endeavor to grasp 

 not the mass of detail but the more funda- 

 mental relations, he will find, I think, that 

 his mind has been somewhat freed from its 

 traditionalism. He will thereafter be a bit 



4 I would not imply that thinking of social prob- 

 lems from the timeless viewpoint should at all re- 

 place the more customary study of these problems. 

 I urge it only as a supplement to such study. 



