The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 2. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE RACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 45, 2 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 2. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE RACE.

What message does science give to ** as to tie future opportunities of the race? Will time improve these conditions and make it easier for man to attain to the highest? Or is man merely to ibecome a slave of the sciences which he has harnessed? Or in these days of ■comets is there danger that he m»J suffer annihilation land disappear as utterly as have other families of th« earth? Professor T. (J. (Jiiainberiain, a distinguished geologist, has been discussing these points to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ; Geology, he admitted, has not usually been regarded as in any special sens« a humanistic science, much less a prophetic one, but because he djreumed that it might become tributary in an I eminent degree to humanistic problem* and to a prophetic insight, he debated these problems from a geologist's ipoint of view. The whole f pa.per is given in Nature, but these are the conclusions of a. keen analysis of the geological probabilities of o*r race: "While there is to he, with little doubt, an end to the earth as a planet, and while, perhaps, previous to that end conditions inhospitable to life may he reached, the forecast of these contingencies places the event in the indeterminate future. The geologic analogies gave fair grounds for anticipating conditions congenial to life for millions or tens of millions of years to come, not to urge the even larger possibilities. But congeniality of conditions does not ensure actual realisation. . There arise at once questions of 'biological adaptation, of vital tenacity, and of purposeful action. Appeal to the record of the animal races reveals in some cases a marvellous endurance, in others, the briefest of records, while the majority fell between the extremes. Many families per-' sisted for millions of years 1 . A long career for man may not, therefore, be denied; on historical grounds, neither can it be assured; it is an individual raw problem; it is a special case of the problem of the races in the largest eensa of the phrase. But into the problem of human endurance two new factors have entered, the power of definite moral purpose aid the resources of research. No previous race has shown clear evidence that it was guided by moral purpose in seeking, distant ends. In man such moral purpose has risen to distinctness. As it grows, Ibeyond question it will count in the perpetuity of the race. No doubt it will wme to weigh more and more as the resources of destructive pleasure, on the one hand; and of altruistic rectitude, on the other, are increased 'by human ingenuity. It will hecome more critical as the growing multiplicity of the race brings' upon it, in increasing stress, the distinctive humanistic phases of the struggle for existence now dimly foreshadowed. It will, beyond question, he more fully realised as the survival of the fittest shall render its verdict on what is good and what is evil in this realm of the moral world. But, to he efficient, moral purpose needs to foe conjoined with the highest intelligence, and herein lies the function of research. None of the earlier races made systematic enquiry into the conditions of life, and sought thereby to extend their careers! What can research do for the extension of the career of man ? We are witnesses of what vt » beginning to do in rendering the forces of nature subservient to man's control and in giving him command over the maladies of which lie has long been the victim. Can it master the secret of vital endurance, the mysteries of heredity. and all the fundamental physiological processes that condition the longevity of the race ? The answer must be left to the future, but I talke no risk in affirming! that when ethics and research join hands in ia broad and earnest endeavor to compass the highest development and the greatest longevity of the race, the era of humanity will really have (begun."