June 19, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



887 



also in the development of the individual. 

 It is clear that the environment is not 

 creating the growing intellect; but it is 

 serving as a means of release to set free 

 its activity and is thus making possible its 

 attainment of power. The fire which 

 lighted the savage's camp in the woods 

 also kindled the intellect of the man who 

 operated with it. It gave him new things 

 to consider. Ultimately it put new tools 

 into his hands and finally it has led his 

 descendants into their most remarkable 

 inventions. 



These considerations make it clear that 

 we shall have a fundamental understand- 

 ing of progress only when we take into 

 account the intellectual and moral and 

 spiritual forces which are released or devel- 

 oped from age to age. These things are 

 elusive; it is hard to get a grasp of them. 

 They have in them the fluidity of life and 

 they slip through our fingers so that we 

 can hardly hold them. And yet they have 

 doubtless had a profound influence of their 

 kind, especially upon the relation of man 

 to man. Consider, for example, this one 

 command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor 

 as thyself. " T. H. Green remarks that this 

 has not varied in form during the whole of 

 human development but that there has been 

 a profound change in the answer to the 

 question, Who is my neighbor? As our 

 conception of duty and one 's responsibility 

 to his fellow has widened, we have given a 

 broader and broader answer to this ques- 

 tion, so that now every member of the 

 human race is to be considered as our 

 neighbor. Indeed, we have gone further 

 than that and have come to include within 

 the pale of our brothers even the most 

 remote tribes of men. Obviously, this con- 

 ception, moral or religious in character, 

 must exercise a profound influence on the 

 civilization of the future. Likewise other 

 matters of this sort must have their impor- 



tant places ; and we will give a just reflec- 

 tion of progress only when we take them 

 into account. 



In this connection I must call your at- 

 tention more precisely to the interplay of 

 material and intellectual forces. We have 

 spoken of the former as releasing the 

 latter. To stop here would be to give a 

 very partial view of the situation. As 

 soon as the intellect has come into play 

 material thing-s will be put into juxtaposi- 

 tion which are not found so in a state of 

 nature. Thus the mind is able to release 

 material forces which had not been in evi- 

 dence before. These in their turn stimu- 

 late the intellect to a greater activity and 

 thus increase its powers. Then we have 

 new juxtapositions of natural things 

 brought about through the deeper insight 

 of the mind into the relations of phenom- 

 ena. The connections which are thus put 

 in evidence become more and more pro- 

 found until at length we find man able to 

 control the elusive electricity and by its 

 means to transmit great powers of nature 

 into his homes and his shops, subdued and 

 taught to do his labor for him at his bid- 

 ding. There seems to be no limit to the 

 progress which may be engendered by this 

 interaction between material and intellec- 

 tual forces. 



Of a similar character, but still more 

 profound in its effect, is the quickening 

 due to the intercourse of man with man. 

 It was this, as we have seen, which char- 

 acterized the first period of human devel- 

 opment. One can not doubt that it has 

 played a fundamental role throughout the 

 whole range of progress. 



It has been observed many times that a 

 new vigor of character is produced by the 

 intermingling of different races or nation- 

 alities of peoples at corresponding stages 

 of development. The new is stronger than 

 either of the elements which go into it. 



