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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 524 



demned at that highest of courts which demands fruits for judg 

 ment. 



It must, therefore, be a relief to the minds of those having a 

 knowledge of the need for social effort and at the same time a 

 conception of the value of true scientific methods in such effort 

 to know that there is at present being developed a movement 

 having for its principle aim the general solution of the problems 

 attacked in the light of a scientific study of the conditions and the 

 elements actually involved in the various problems as presented 

 in the lives of our municipal communities. 



This movement to which we refer, the University Settlement 

 effort, came originally from Oxford and was the piactical sug- 

 gestion of Arnold Toynbee, for whom the great settlement of 

 London has been named and from whom came the inspiration of 

 the workers in this and other countries. 



To solve the problem of heat and light or electricity while 

 being shut out from a possible knowledge of the facts involved or 

 a possibility of experimenting «ith those forces we would to-day 

 consider to be the height of intellectual absurdity and worthy 

 only of the a priori philosophers of the Middle Ages, whose opin- 

 ions are of value only as curiosities. 



Or once having exactly ascertained the existence and the laws 

 of physical phenomena and not to attempt to make use of our 

 knowledge for the practical advancement of life upon the globe 

 and for progress in the arts we are bound to regard as lack of 

 enterprise and the spirit of ultimate scientific progress. 



But in the so called '• Social Sciences " and their application we 

 are only gradually adopting the inductive method for gaining 

 knowledge aad have been devoting more time to the attempted 

 ultimate solution of fundamental problems on insufficient pre- 

 mises than to the practical application of such knowledge as we 

 have already gained and the actual face to face study of the con- 

 ditions for the discovery of future data. 



With the sense of this lack of scientific method in the study of 

 our social questions and the feeling of urgency in the necessity 

 for the application of such truths as we have already obtained, 

 the men and women of the University Settlements have es- 

 tablished, in several of our great cities, houses, to be centres for 

 work, set down in the midst of the conditions which are to be 

 investigated and acted upon. 



While many of the people who have taken up this work are 

 undoubtedly so directed from their affiliation with the Church 

 and its efforts for regeneration, the methods used are essentially 

 foreign to what has been known as "Church work," and their 

 aim is very far from being along the lines of attacking the prob- 

 lems which are purely physical from the spiritual standpoint. 

 But striking out along the grand lines of the early development 

 of altruism from egoism though the fellow feeling for those with 

 whom we are in personal contact, they have adopted the idea of the 

 self-help of a neighborhood as their governing principle. With 

 this moving principle in view the University Settlement move- 

 ment is easily understood. 



Primarily it is, by bringing to the view of what has been called 

 the ' ' submerged tenth " the lives of those successful in the battle 

 for contentment in life through higher ideals and greater educa- 

 tion, to create a feeling of dissatisfaction with surroundings not 

 typify in? those ideals and to open to their minds the possibility 

 of progress through advancement in knowledge and the attitude 

 of mind which is not content with the creature means of exist- 

 ence, and, as neighbors, to help all such as have already gained a 

 desire to become more worthy citizens, men and women. As a 

 means for such influence the work of the settlement in visiting, 

 clubs, classes, and all kindly actions is instituted. 



For those beyond the possibility of these influence, and even 

 beyond the effect of any efforts made for social regeneration, the 

 situation in the midst of such classes offers a possibility for the 

 study of the conditions and the internal life and movement of the 

 subjects to be acted upon. Studies have begun in the collection of 

 facts and phenomena which gradually but only gradually develop 

 the laws of social dynamics and social statics which have been 

 so often approached from the theoretical but so seldom from the 

 standpoint of induction and experiment. 



As the facts are discovered and these laws developed the per- 



sonal relations of the workers in such fields must yield to their 

 minds the true methods of attacking and solving the problems 

 which perhaps only first in these studies have been presented and 

 enable them to point out to individual workers as well as to 

 municipalities the directions of sure progress 



Not by any means the least productive effort of the settlement 

 is this unification of the direction of the efforts which various 

 social workers have been making towards a greater advance in 

 economic progress and the bringing of the various classes of the 

 community into hirmony with each other. 



There is no one that will doubt that a common humanity actu- 

 ates us all, but it is at the same time impossible to say that there 

 is a comprehension of this fact in the minds of the individuals 

 belonging to the several classes. 



While our origin and essential characteristics may be identical, 

 it is nevertheless true that the variations in the external condi- 

 tions have so far led us to apparent hostility that the fact that 

 there is a common point of interest has become almost com- 

 pletely extinguished. 



Here lies the dangerous element in the growing movement 

 towards the usurpation of the rights of the individual by the 

 community, for on both sides there always remains a fear of op- 

 pression and of usurpation of power by the other. To counteract 

 such a dangerous principle, in either its idea or its application, it 

 has become more and more necessary that our heterogeneous 

 communities should come to a knowledge of their essentially 

 homogeneous character, a knowledge which must rest upon firmer 

 foundations than the mere intellectual conception of a truth and 

 be guarded in a trust across the social barriers, only to be gained 

 by a more intimate knowledge of each other's characteristics as 

 well as each other's conditions of life. 



By the studies we are describing the knowledge necesfary is 

 gradually being obtainedj and the trust accorded by both sides to 

 these students renders possible an actual contact from one side 

 to the other and brings about a trust in the hearts and charac- 

 teristics of men separated by the wide gulfs of circumstance. 

 Studies such as these are developing, too, the manner of education 

 needed for the most rapid advancement of the community, set- 

 tling many disputed questions of the bearings on the lives of the 

 people of manual training, day-nurseries, model tenements, boys' 

 clubs, and other similar efforts which have been made from above 

 downward, based on theories founded too often on insufficient 

 knowledge of the facts involved and carried along with too little 

 regard for the actual results attained. 



We may, in consequence, expect from this movement a fruit of 

 knowledge gained of social conditions and the results of socio- 

 logical experiments which, while being of the character of the 

 ascertainment of scientific facts obtained through a scientific 

 method of investigation, yet carries with it practical results in 

 the advancement of the life of the community toward a more 

 rational fitness to the environment and a healthy improvement in 

 the material conditions and culture of great masses of the com- 

 munity. 



A NEW VISUAL ILLUSION. 



BY EDMUND C. SANFORD, CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS. 



The following illusion is, so far as I know, new and seems of 

 sufficient interest to put on record. A short- pointed star of white 

 card-board, or even a square, is placed on the spindle of a rotation 

 color-mixer and set in rapid rotation. The resulting appearance 

 is a white central circle surrounded by a transparent ring — most 

 transparent at the outer edge, least transparent towaid the centre. 

 If now a piece of black card-board of a length somewhat greater 

 than the diameter of the star from point to point be brought be- 

 hind it while in rotation, the advance of the edge of the card can 

 be followed, not only behind the transparent ring, but also behind 

 the opaque central circle. It is most noticeable just within the 

 circumference of the central circle, and is most marked when the 

 black card is kept in motion. When the card remains stationary, 

 the illusion weakens; and for perfectly stationary objects, like 

 the parts of the rotation apparatus itself, it fails altogether. The 

 portion of the central circle, through which the card seems to be 



