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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 348. 



their entry was either barred out or stoutly 

 opposed. The 'Conflict between Eeligion 

 and Science '^-more precisely called the 

 conflict between theology and science — 

 which disturbed so many eminent though 

 timid minds, including not a few men of 

 science, a quarter of a century ago, has now 

 been transferred almost wholly to the field 

 of the theological contestants ; and science 

 may safely leave them to determine the 

 issue, since it is evidently coming by means 

 of scientific methods. The grave fears en- 

 tertained a few decades ago by distin- 

 guished theologians and pubMcists as to 

 the stability of the social fabric under the 

 stress put upon it by the rising tide of sci- 

 entific ideas, have not been realized. And, 

 on the other hand, the grave doubts enter- 

 tained by distinguished men of science a 

 few decades ago as to the permeability and 

 ready response of modern society to that 

 influx of new ideas, have likewise not been 

 realized. It is true that we still sometimes 

 read of theological tests being applied to 

 teachers of biology, and hear, occasionally, 

 of an earnest search for a good methodist 

 or a good presbyterian mathematician ; but 

 such cases may be left for settlement out of 

 court by means of the arbitration of our 

 sense of humor. It seems not unlikely, 

 also, that there may persist, for a long time 

 to come, a more or less guerilla ' warfare 

 of science ' with our friends the dogmatists 

 and the humanists. Some consider this con- 

 flict to be, in the nature of things, irrepress- 

 ible. But I think we may hope, if we may 

 not confidently expect, that the collisions of 

 the future will occur more manifestly than 

 they have in the past in accordance with 

 the law of the conservation of energy ; so 

 that the heat evolved may reappear as po- 

 tential energy in the warmth of a kindly 

 reasonableness on both sides, rather than 

 suffer degradation to the level of cosmic 

 frigidity. 



Great questions, also, of education, of 



economic, industrial and social conditions, 

 and of legal and political relations are now 

 demanding all the light which science can 

 bring to bear upon them. Though tardily 

 perceived, it is now admitted, generally, 

 that science must not only participate in 

 the development of these questions but that 

 it alone can point the way to the solutions 

 of many of them. But there is no halting 

 ground here. Science must likewise enter 

 and explore the domain of manners and 

 morals ; and these, though already largely 

 modified unconsciously, must now be mod- 

 ified consciously to a still greater extent by 

 the advance of science. Only within quite 

 recent times have we come to realize an ap- 

 proximation to the real meaning of the trite 

 saying that the proper study of man is man. 

 So long as the most favored individuals of 

 his race, in accordance with the hypothesis 

 of the first centuries, looked upon him as a 

 fallen, if not a doomed, resident of an aban- 

 doned reservation, there could be roused 

 little enthusiasm with respect to his present 

 condition ; all thought was concentrated on 

 his future prospects. How incomparably 

 different does he appear to the anthropolo- 

 gist and the psychologist at the beginning of 

 the twentieth century ! In the light of evo- 

 lution he is seen to be a part of, and not 

 apart from, the rest of the universe. The 

 transcendent interest of this later view of 

 man lies in the fact that he can not only in- 

 vestigate the other parts of the universe, 

 but that he can, by means of the same meth- 

 ods, investigate himself. 



I would be the last to look upon science 

 as furnishing a speedy or a complete panacea 

 for the sins and sorrows of mankind ; the 

 destiny of our race is entangled in a cosmic 

 process whose working is thus far only dim- 

 ly outlined to us; but it is nevertheless 

 clear that there are available to us immense 

 opportunities for the betterment of man's 

 estate. For example, to mention only one 

 of the lines along which improvement is 



