20 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, nor am I 
related by blood or marriage to any prophet or son of a prophet. 
This age may be as badly in need of prophets as any other age, 
but what it needs most of all is common sense methods of deal- 
ing with the problems that confront it. It seems to me we may 
profitably spend a little time in the consideration of some of the 
bearings of scientific methods on current thought and action. 
What is the scientific spirit? Some would say it is the spirit 
of the age. But it may well be doubted whether there is such 
a thing as a spirit of the age. With people and their wants so 
diverse, the general iastabllity of changing institutions make a 
universal animating spirit well nigh imyjossible. But the sci- 
entific spirit is something definite and characteristic. We may 
notice some of the things it is not. It is not the mere seeking 
for truth, for many who seek the truth are content with half 
truths. It is not enthusiasm, fcr the enthusiast too often stands 
in his own light. It is not the mere collecting of data, for facts 
and the records of facts in themselves are well nigh worthless. 
The scientific spirit seeks to demonstrate no proposition; it is 
not partisan. In short, the man imbued with the scientific spirit 
seeks the whole truth in all its i:elatioiis, and accepts its teach- 
ings regardless of consequences. 
We need to scrutinize very carefully a large amount of the 
so-called science and scientific methods of to day. The word 
scientist, has become a sort of abrakadabra, b^^ means of which 
men hope to conjure up the objects of their hopes and desires. 
Science is too often interpreted as the triumph of shrewdness 
over simplicity, tne hoodwinking of the ignorant and innocent by 
the ingenious sharper, or the successful defeat of an opponent 
through chicanery. So far is this carried sometimes that we are 
ready to paraphrase that famous expression of Madame Roland 
and exclaim, “O, science what crimes have been committed in 
thy name.” Any addition to our knowledge that does not affect 
and improve all classes only lowers relatively the under strata 
of society; any advance in science which does not adapt itself to 
the masses only renders them more helpless in the hands of the 
unprincipled but more intelligent. Science and scientific meth- 
ods are not for the few, but for the many. Wemustnot assume 
that scientific methods have no place in common affairs. The 
scientific spirit is not a new but an old factor in human pro- 
gress. But we are too much inclined to relegate science and 
scientific procedures to the specialist, the scientist^ and as the 
