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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1024 



impetuous, enquiry, and the development 

 of establishments through which research 

 may be pursued patiently and systematic- 

 ally to demonstrable conclusions is one of 

 the most inspiring signs of our times as well 

 as one of the most essential agencies for the 

 conservation of the best interests of com- 

 munity and national life. 



For without the aid of such establish- 

 ments it is not evident how we may distin- 

 guish what is fundamental and advantage- 

 ous in our advancing evolution from what 

 is accidental or inimical to it. Many emi- 

 nent minds, indeed, are appalled at the 

 temerity and the impatience of the more 

 radical members of contemporary society 

 in their manifestations of the prevailing 

 spirit of inquiry. Traditions, customs, 

 cherished beliefs and legal methods of pro- 

 cedure are all being challenged. In an era 

 of unparalleled enlightenment so far as 

 available knowledge is concerned we are 

 frequently startled by the fact that there 

 are yet numerous localities where intellec- 

 tual darkness, if not abysmal ignorance, 

 prevails. In an era of unequaled philan- 

 thropy and international amity there are 

 nevertheless instances of wars whose atroc- 

 ities beggar description, while national 

 armaments which threaten national bank- 

 ruptcy go forward unimpeded. Although 

 the administration of justice was never on 

 the whole so equitable and so merciful as 

 at present, we are becoming deeply con- 

 scious that courts of law so often lead to 

 injustice as to almost warrant the question- 

 able extremes of the "referendum" and 

 the "recall." Thus, also, it is becoming 

 painfully evident that while statesmen and 

 publicists were never so well equipped for 

 their work as at present, they are still 

 pushing political and oratorical methods 

 absurdly far in trying to settle by their 

 aid such complicated questions, for ex- 

 ample, as those of tariffs and the diminish- 

 ing purchasing capacity of the world's 



monetary standards. Although there never 

 was a time when men of merit received 

 more ready recognition, there are yet those 

 who would seek to divide the earnings and 

 the savings of the industrious and the 

 thrifty with the shiftless and the improvi- 

 dent. And while there never was a time 

 when the rights and the opportunities ac- 

 corded to women were so numerous and so 

 universal, there are yet members of their 

 sex who, reckless alike of property and life, 

 would destroy laws which society has 

 slowly and laboriously built up through 

 ages of tentative effort and experiment. 



This stupendous plexus of conflicting is- 

 sues, this world-wide phantasm, one might 

 say, of realizable and unrealizable ideas 

 and ideals, may well be a source of despair 

 to the enthusiastic philanthropist, to the 

 hopeful humanist and to the pious relig- 

 ionist; for unless they take into account 

 the secular extent of the time element in- 

 volved and hence the painful slowness of 

 the processes of evolution, they will not 

 only fail to understand the issues in ques- 

 tion, but will fail also to anticipate and to 

 appreciate the improvements to which 

 these issues will lead when fully wrought 

 out. No one unacquainted with the essen- 

 tials of the Darwinian theory and no one 

 not animated by a patient and painstaking 

 spirit of research can expect to gain any- 

 thing better than a superficial view of the 

 activities, aims and aspirations of contem- 

 porary life. The problems it presents are 

 as much problems in biology, in anthropol- 

 ogy and in all of the older branches of 

 physical science, as they are problems in 

 political economy and jurisprudence; al- 

 though, strange as it may seem, we have 

 hitherto held them to be, and may still ex- 

 pect them to be long commonly considered, 

 problems belonging solely to the provinces 

 of politics and religion. Out of this mix- 

 ture of wisdom and unwisdom, out of this 

 conflict of opinions of the masses and the 



