eritance,
and impel them in mistaken paths to learn bitterness and revolt--if this
were found to be the tendency in a large percentage of cases; and if
your reason considered that all individuals are entitled to equal
opportunity, and that the education of the masses is an enlightened
modern principle, the tangible results, however unfortunate they might
appear, would not convince you of the unsoundness of the principle.

As a matter of fact, very few people may be convinced of anything which
is contrary to their liking, or in opposition to their preconceived
notions. An open mind may be helped to form an opinion, and people may
be confirmed and enlightened by ideas which are congenial to their way
of thinking, but that is as much as may reasonably be expected.

This phase of the subject has not been my concern. I am merely trying to
find expression for what seems to me the truth, as I feel it and see it.

And the truth is, obviously, that the aim and effort of modern science
has been to build up rather than to tear down. It has been striving,
with all the means at its command, to discover the true facts and the
true principles with regard to all things and to utilize them for the
benefit of mankind.

It may be its attention has been chiefly occupied with the material
things of life, and the material principles which apply to them, but
modern progress, in many ways is a splendid thing. As applied to the
life of the individual, it is a splendid thing to improve the health and
strength and condition of the human body. And as for the intellect,
anything that science has done or could do to develop it to the highest
degree, must be regarded as a step in the right direction. The body and
the mind are essential parts of a human being and, as we have had
occasion to observe, it is a fundamental aspiration of man to make them
always better.

If science, in investigating the true facts of existence, has been led
to conclude that many old-time traditions and beliefs were largely
composed of imagination and ignorance, and the indirect results of such
a conclusion have proved unsettling and disconcerting, should blame be
attached to any effort which seeks only the truth?

The present condition, however unfortunate it may appear to us who are
experiencing it, may be no more than a passing phase of development. The
dawn of better days and finer standards, may lie just ahead of us, and
when they come, it may be found that the en