August 20, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



229 



that the scientific spirit is all but unknown 

 among the Turks, the Moroccans, the Mo- 

 hammedans in general, the Hindoos, the 

 Egyptians, the Chinese. Amongst all of 

 these peoples, comprising three fifths of 

 the human race, can any one of us to-day 

 recall the names of three men who have 

 contributed appreciably to the advance- 

 ment of science in the past two centuries? 

 The very limited introduction of scientific 

 method into their countries is the work of 

 alien governors or alien influence. The un- 

 scientific nations are threatened with ab- 

 sorption by their more scientific neighbors, 

 not so much because they do not invent or 

 perfect the most powerful cannon, the 

 sturdiest dreadnaught, the speediest aero- 

 plane, or the subtlest submarine, as be- 

 cause the scientific peoples forge ahead of 

 them in the arts of peace, in the modes of 

 thought, in the aifairs of daily life. The 

 unscientific peoples are without influence 

 in the world, not because they are unwar- 

 like — the Turks and essentially all Moham- 

 medans are warlike enough to suit the most 

 exacting — but because they are lacking in 

 the every-day efficiency which accompanies 

 the scientific spirit. 



The term science may be defined in sev- 

 eral ways. From the standpoint which in- 

 terests us to-day, we may say that science 

 is the relationship of cause and effect. 

 Wherever we observe an effect there has 

 been a cause; wherever causes are operat- 

 ing there will be effects. The same causes, 

 acting under precisely the same conditions, 

 will produce precisely the same effects. 

 This is the experience of every investigator 

 in every subject, and no one has the slight- 

 est reason to doubt the correctness of the 

 principle. There is no room for the opera- 

 tion of the arbitrary and the capricious; 

 in fact, the arbitrary and the capricious do 

 not exist in nature. If in one case out of a 

 hundred the result which interests us is 



different from what we had expected we 

 may rest assured that in this one case some 

 change occurred in the forces acting ; a new 

 force entered, an old force became inopera- 

 tive, or the relative intensities of the active 

 forces changed. When we do not under- 

 stand why certain events occurred it means 

 that we do not understand the forces which 

 acted to produce the events. The correct 

 explanation of the events means that we 

 have isolated the causes and have been 

 able to express the laws of their action. 



The forces which have interested man- 

 kind, range from those cosmic forces which 

 operate on a scale so stupendous that we 

 have no control over them, down through 

 those forces which we can control to a 

 limited extent, and on to those which are 

 absolutely subject to human control. We 

 are not able to limit or to increase the out- 

 put of the sun 's heat, and we can not guide 

 the movements of the comets, planets and 

 stars in their orbits. We do not know how 

 to stay the wind and the rain, but we can 

 apply them, in a limited degree, to our pur- 

 poses, and we can do much to protect our- 

 selves from their injurious effects. The 

 forces which govern the daily life of the 

 individual, the community and the nation, 

 and which govern the relations of individ- 

 uals, communities and nations to each other 

 are, with rare exceptions, either absolutely 

 under human control or such control is a 

 hopeful aspect of the near future. These 

 forces are the means to certain logical ends, 

 and we can not question that they also 

 operate unerringly according to law. 

 Whether they shall be applied for civiliza- 

 tion or against civilization is for man to 

 decide. The automobile may be used to 

 bring the physician on an errand of mercy, 

 or to hasten the robber to a place of con- 

 cealment and immunity. High explosives 

 will cut a canal through the Culebra ridge, 

 or deal destruction from a twelve-inch shell. 



