Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 11. 37 



rise instead of falling, and physics teaches us that it is 

 precisely the force of gravity which makes them rise ! 



The history of the natural and medical sciences is the 

 triumph of utopia. If, five centuries ago, one had pre- 

 dicted that one day there would be steam engines, rail- 

 ways, telegraphs, telephones, and electric lamps, would he 

 not have been considered as a Utopian ? People would 

 have gone further, he would have been considered mad. 

 Yet all these marvels, and many others, have been 

 realised. 



It may be objected perhaps that the progress of 

 which we have spoken has been purely material, and that 

 science is powerless to modify human nature ; that man's 

 egoism, his rivalries, jealousies and prejudices, his desire 

 to accumulate wealth, his thirst for power, and the differ- 

 ences of race have stirred up interminable struggles in the 

 past, and that the same will be the case in the future, 

 because men to-day are not better than those in the past. 



It may be said that among the examples which we 

 have quoted there are some which show science reduced 

 to impotence by the faults of human nature. For example, 

 why are the methods which allow such advantages to be 

 obtained by the destruction of weeds not universally em- 

 ployed ? Are not the obstacles to be found in the spirit 

 of routine and the ignorance of the peasant ? If one were 

 to enlighten the peasant would he not draw back before 

 the considerable expense involved, an outlay which would 

 increase the value of the ground he cultivated, but only 

 after a number of years, and in such a way that the profit 

 would be reaped rather by his landlord than by himself? 

 And if one were to point out to the landlord and to the 

 leaseholder that they had an interest in common and that 

 it was only right that each should bear a portion of the 

 burden of the expense, would they not be discouraged by 



