,note3 ,images of the original pages are
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,archive_/,american ,libraries4 ,see    
https3_/_/archive4org_/details_/discover
yoffutur#jjwelliala            ,,the    
,,discovery ,,of ,,the ,,future    by   
,h4 ,g4 ,,wells                         
,illustration    ,new ,york  ,b4 ,w4    
,huebsch  #aiac    ,copyright1 #aiac1   
,by ,b4 ,w4 ,huebsch    ,printed in ,u4 
,s4 ,a4          ,,the ,,discovery ,,of 
,,the ,,future#a    ,,by ,h4 ,g4 ,,wells
      #a ,a discourse delivered at the  
,royal ,institution4      ,it will lead 
into my subject most conveniently to    
contrast and separate  two divergent    
types of mind1 types which are to be    
distinguished chiefly  by their attitude
 toward time1 and more particularly by  
the relative  importance they attach and
 the relative amount of thought they    
give to  the future4    ,the first of   
these two types of mind1 and it is1 ,i  
think1 the  predominant type1 the type  
of the majority of living people1 is    

that  which seems scarcely to think of  
the future at all1 which regards it as  
a sort of blank non-existence upon which
 the advancing present will  presently  
write events4 ,the second type1 which   
is1 ,i think1 a more  modern and much   
less abundant type of mind1 thinks      
constantly and by  preference of things 
to come1 and of present things mainly in
 relation  to the results that must     
arise from them4 ,the former type of    
mind1 when  one gets it in its purity1  
is retrospective in habit1 and it       
interprets  the things of the present1  
and gives value to this and denies it to
  that1 entirely with relation to the   
past4 ,the latter type of mind is       
constructive in habit1 it interprets the
 things of the present and  gives value 
to this or that1 entirely in relation to
 things designed or  foreseen4    ,while
 from that former point of view our life
 is simply to reap the  consequences of 
the past1 from this our life is to      
prepare the future4  ,the former type   

one might speak of as the legal or      
submissive type of  mind1 because the   
business1 the practice1 and the training
 of a lawyer  dispose him toward it2 he 
of all men must constantly refer to the 
law  made1 the right established1 the   
precedent set1 and consistently ignore  
or condemn the thing that is only       
seeking to establish itself4 ,the       
latter type of mind ,i might for        
contrast call the legislative1 creative1
  organizing1 or masterful type1 because
 it is perpetually attacking and        
altering the established order of       
things1 perpetually falling away from   
respect for what the past has given us4 
,it sees the world as one great         
workshop1 and the present is no more    
than material for the future1  for the  
thing that is yet destined to be4 ,it is
 in the active mood of  thought1 while  
the former is in the passive2 it is the 
mind of youth1 it  is the mind more     
manifest among the western nations1     
while the former is  the mind of age1   

the mind of the oriental4    ,things    
have been1 says the legal mind1 and so  
we are here4 ,the creative  mind says we
 are here because things have yet to be4
    ,now ,i do not wish to suggest that 
the great mass of people belong to      
either of these two types4 ,indeed1 ,i  
speak of them as two distinct and       
distinguishable types mainly for        
convenience and in order to accentuate  
their distinction4 ,there are probably  
very few people who brood  constantly   
upon the past without any thought of the
 future at all1 and  there are probably 
scarcely any who live and think         
consistently in  relation to the future4
 ,the great mass of people occupy an    
intermediate  position between these    
extremes1 they pass daily and hourly    
from the  passive mood to the active1   
they see this thing in relation to its  
associations and that thing in relation 
to its consequences1 and they  do not   
even suspect that they are using two    
distinct methods in their  minds4       

,but for all that they are distinct     
methods1 the method of reference to  the
 past and the method of reference to the
 future1 and their mingling  in many of 
our minds no more abolishes their       
difference than the  existence of       
piebald horses proves that white is     
black4    ,i believe that it is not     
sufficiently recognized just how        
different  in their consequences these  
two methods are1 and just where their   
difference and where the failure to     
appreciate their difference takes  one4 
,this present time is a period of quite 
extraordinary uncertainty  and          
indecision upon endless questions--moral
 questions1 sthetic  questions1         
religious and political questions--upon 
which we should all  of us be happier to
 feel assured and settled2 and a very   
large amount of  this floating          
uncertainty about these important       
matters is due to the  fact that with   
most of us these two insufficiently     
distinguished ways of  looking at things

 are not only present together1 but in  
actual conflict  in our minds1 in       
unsuspected conflict2 we pass from one  
to the other  heedlessly without any    
clear recognition of the fundamental    
difference  in conclusions that exists  
between the two1 and we do this with    
disastrous results to our confidence and
 to our consistency in dealing  with all
 sorts of things4    ,but before        
pointing out how divergent these two    
types or habits of  mind really are1 it 
is necessary to meet a possible         
objection to what  has been said4 ,i may
 put that objection in this form3 ,is   
not this  distinction between a type of 
mind that thinks of the past and a type 
of mind that thinks of the future a sort
 of hair-splitting1 almost like         
distinguishing between people who have  
left hands and people who have  right8  
,everybody believes that the present is 
entirely determined by  the past1 you   
say2 but then everybody believes also   
that the present  determines the future4

 ,are we simply separating and          
contrasting two  sides of everybody's   
opinion8 ,to which one replies that we  
are not  discussing what we know and    
believe about the relations of past1    
present1 and future1 or of the relation 
of cause and effect to each  other in   
time4 ,we all know the present depends  
for its causes on the  past1 and the    
future depends for its causes upon the  
present4 ,but this  discussion concerns 
the way in which we approach things upon
 this  common ground of knowledge and   
belief4 ,we may all know there is an    
east and a west1 but if some of us      
always approach and look at things  from
 the west1 if some of us always approach
 and look at things from  the east1 and 
if others again wander about with a     
pretty disregard of  direction1 looking 
at things as chance determines1 some of 
us will get  to a westward conclusion of
 this journey1 and some of us will get  
to an  eastward conclusion1 and some of 
us will get to no definite conclusion   

at all about all sorts of important     
matters4 ,and yet those who are         
travelling east1 and those who are      
travelling west1 and those who are      
wandering haphazard1 may be all upon the
 same ground of belief and  statement   
and amid the same assembly of proven    
facts4 ,precisely the same  thing1      
divergence of result1 will happen if you
 always approach things  from the point 
of view of their causes1 or if you      
approach them always  with a view to    
their probable effects4 ,and in several 
very important  groups of human affairs 
it is possible to show quite clearly    
just how  widely apart the two methods1 
pursued each in its purity1 take those  
who  follow them4    ,i suppose that    
three hundred years ago all people who  
thought at all  about moral questions1  
about questions of ,right and ,wrong1   
deduced their  rules of conduct         
absolutely and unreservedly from the    
past1 from some  dogmatic injunction1   
some finally settled decree4 ,the great 

mass of  people do so to-day4 ,it is    
written1 they say4 ,thou shalt not      
steal1  for example--that is the sole1  
complete1 sufficient reason why you     
should not steal1 and even to-day there 
is a strong aversion to admit  that     
there is any relation between the actual
 consequences of acts and  the          
imperatives of right and wrong4 ,our    
lives are to reap the fruits  of        
determinate things1 and it is still a   
fundamental presumption of the          
established morality that one must do   
right though the heavens fall4  ,but    
there are people coming into this world 
who would refuse to call it  ,right if  
it brought the heavens about our heads1 
however authoritative  its sources and  
sanctions1 and this new disposition is1 
,i believe1  a growing one4 ,i suppose  
in all ages people in a timid1          
hesitating1  guilty way have tempered   
the austerity of a dogmatic moral code  
by  small infractions to secure         
obviously kindly ends1 but it was1 ,i am

  told1 the ,jesuits who first          
deliberately sought to qualify the moral
  interpretation of acts by a           
consideration of their results4 ,to-day 
there  are few people who have not more 
or less clearly discovered the future   
as a more or less important factor in   
moral considerations4 ,to-day there  is 
a certain small proportion of people who
 frankly regard morality  as a means to 
an end1 as an overriding of immediate   
and personal  considerations out of     
regard to something to be attained in   
the future1  and who break away         
altogether from the idea of a code      
dogmatically  established forever4      
,most of us are not so definite as that1
 but most of us are deeply  tinged with 
the spirit of compromise between the    
past and the future2  we profess an     
unbounded allegiance to the             
prescriptions of the past1  and we      
practise a general observance of its    
injunctions1 but we qualify  to a vague1
 variable extent with considerations of 

expediency4 ,we hold1  for example1 that
 we must respect our promises4 ,but     
suppose we find  unexpectedly that for  
one of us to keep a promise1 which has  
been sealed  and sworn in the most      
sacred fashion1 must lead to the great  
suffering  of some other human being1   
must lead1 in fact1 to practical evil8  
,would  a man do right or wrong if he   
broke such a promise8 ,the practical    
decision most modern people would make  
would be to break the promise4  ,most   
would say that they did evil to avoid a 
greater evil4 ,but suppose  it was not  
such very great suffering we were going 
to inflict1 but only  some suffering8   
,and suppose it was a rather important  
promise8 ,with most  of us it would then
 come to be a matter of weighing the    
promise1 the  thing of the past1 against
 this unexpected bad consequence1 the   
thing of  the future4 ,and the smaller  
the overplus of evil consequences the   
more  most of us would vacillate4 ,but  
neither of the two types of mind we are 

contrasting would vacillate at all4 ,the
 legal type of mind would obey  the past
 unhesitatingly1 the creative would     
unhesitatingly sacrifice it  to the     
future4 ,the legal mind would say1 they 
who break the law at any  point break it
 altogether1 while the creative mind    
would say1 let the  dead past bury its  
dead4    ,it is convenient to take my   
illustration from the sphere of         
promises1  but it is in the realm of    
sexual morality that the two methods are
 most  acutely in conflict4    ,and ,i  
would like to suggest that until you    
have definitely determined  either to   
obey the real or imaginary imperatives  
of the past1 or to set  yourself toward 
the demands of some ideal of the future1
 until you have  made up your mind to   
adhere to one or other of these two     
types of mental  action in these        
matters1 you are not even within hope of
 a sustained  consistency in the thought
 that underlies your acts1 that in every
 issue  of principle that comes upon    

you1 you will be entirely at the mercy  
of  the intellectual mood that happens  
to be ascendent at that particular      
moment in your mind4    ,in the sphere  
of public affairs also these two ways of
 looking at things  work out into       
equally divergent and incompatible      
consequences4 ,the legal  mind insists  
upon treaties1 constitutions1           
legitimacies1 and charters2  the        
legislative incessantly assails these4  
,whenever some period of  stress sets   
in1 some great conflict between         
institutions and the forces  in things1 
there comes a sorting out of these two  
types of mind4 ,the  legal mind becomes 
glorified and transfigured in the form  
of hopeless  loyalty1 the creative mind 
inspires revolutions and                
reconstructions4  ,and particularly is  
this difference of attitude accentuated 
in the  disputes that arise out of wars4
 ,in most modern wars there is no doubt 
quite traceable on one side or the other
 a distinct creative idea1 a  distinct  

regard for some future consequence2 but 
the main dispute even  in most modern   
wars and the sole dispute in most       
medival wars will  be found to be a     
reference1 not to the future1 but to the
 past2 to  turn upon a question of fact 
and right4 ,the wars of ,plantagenet and
  ,lancastrian ,england with ,france1   
for example1 were based entirely upon  a
 dummy claim1 supported by obscure legal
 arguments1 upon the crown of  ,france4 
,and the arguments that centered about  
the late war in ,south  ,africa ignored 
any ideal of a great united ,south      
,african state almost  entirely1 and    
quibbled this way and that about who    
began the fighting  and what was or was 
not written in some obscure revision of 
a treaty a  score of years ago4 ,yet    
beneath the legal issues the broad      
creative idea  has been apparent in the 
public mind during this war4 ,it will be
 found  more or less definitely         
formulated beneath almost all the great 
wars of  the past century1 and a        

comparison of the wars of the nineteenth
 century  with the wars of the middle   
ages will show1 ,i think1 that in this  
field  also there has been a discovery  
of the future1 an increasing disposition
  to shift the reference and values from
 things accomplished to things to  come4
    ,yet though foresight creeps into   
our politics and a reference to         
consequence into our morality1 it is    
still the past that dominates our       
lives4 ,but why8 ,why are we so bound to
 it8 ,it is into the future we go1      
to-morrow is the eventful thing for us4 
,there lies all that remains to  be felt
 by us and our children and all those   
that are dear to us4 ,yet we  marshal   
and order men into classes entirely with
 regard to the past2 we  draw shame and 
honor out of the past2 against the      
rights of property1  the vested         
interests1 the agreements and           
establishments of the past  the future  
has no rights4 ,literature is for the   
most part history or  history at one    

remove1 and what is culture but a mold  
of interpretation  into which new things
 are thrust1 a collection of standards1 
a sort  of bed of ,king ,og1 to which   
all new expressions must be lopped or   
stretched8 ,our conveniences1 like our  
thoughts1 are all retrospective4  ,we   
travel on roads so narrow that they     
suffocate our traffic2 we live  in      
uncomfortable1 inconvenient1            
life-wasting houses out of a love of    
familiar shapes and familiar customs and
 a dread of strangeness2 all our  public
 affairs are cramped by local boundaries
 impossibly restricted  and small4 ,our 
clothing1 our habits of speech1 our     
spelling1 our weights  and measures1 our
 coinage1 our religious and political   
theories1 all  witness to the binding   
power of the past upon our minds4 ,yet  
we do  not serve the past as the        
,chinese have done4 ,there are degrees4 
,we do  not worship our ancestors or    
prescribe a rigid local costume2 we dare
  to enlarge our stock of knowledge1 and

 we qualify the classics with           
occasional adventures into original     
thought4 ,compared with the ,chinese  we
 are distinctly aware of the future4    
,but compared with what we might  be1   
the past is all our world4    ,the      
reason why the retrospective habit1 the 
legal habit1 is so dominant1  and always
 has been so predominant1 is of course a
 perfectly obvious  one4 ,we follow a   
fundamental human principle and take    
what we can get4  ,all people believe   
the past is certain1 defined1 and       
knowable1 and only  a few people believe
 that it is possible to know anything   
about the  future4 ,man has acquired the
 habit of going to the past because it  
was  the line of least resistance for   
his mind4 ,while a certain variable     
portion of the past is serviceable      
matter for knowledge in the case of     
everyone1 the future is1 to a mind      
without an imagination trained in       
scientific habits of thought1           
non-existent4 ,all our minds are made of

  memories4 ,in our memories each of us 
has something that without any  special 
training whatever will go back into the 
past and grip firmly and  convincingly  
all sorts of workable facts1 sometimes  
more convincingly  than firmly4 ,but the
 imagination1 unless it is strengthened 
by a very  sound training in the laws of
 causation1 wanders like a lost child in
  the blankness of things to come and   
returns empty4    ,many people believe1 
therefore1 that there can be no sort of 
certainty  about the future4 ,you can   
know no more about the future1 ,i was   
recently assured by a friend1 than you  
can know which way a kitten will  jump  
next4 ,and to all who hold that view1   
who regard the future as a  perpetual   
source of convulsive surprises1 as an   
impenetrable1 incurable1  perpetual     
blankness1 it is right and reasonable to
 derive such values as  it is necessary 
to attach to things from the events that
 have certainly  happened with regard to
 them4 ,it is our ignorance of the      

future and our  persuasion that that    
ignorance is absolutely incurable that  
alone gives  the past its enormous      
predominance in our thoughts4 ,but      
through the  ages1 the long unbroken    
succession of fortune-tellers--and they 
flourish  still--witnesses to the       
perpetually smoldering feeling that     
after all  there may be a better sort of
 knowledge--a more serviceable sort of  
knowledge than that we now possess4     
,on the whole there is something        
sympathetic for the dupe of the         
fortune-teller in the spirit of modern  
science2 it is one of the  persuasions  
that come into one's mind1 as one       
assimilates the broad  conception of    
science1 that the adequacy of causation 
is universal2 that  in absolute fact--if
 not in that little bubble of relative  
fact which  constitutes the individual  
life--in absolute fact the future is    
just as  fixed and determinate1 just as 
settled and inevitable1 just as possible
  a matter of knowledge as the past4    

,our personal memory gives us an        
impression of the superior reality and  
trustworthiness of things in the  past1 
as of things that have finally committed
 themselves and said their  say1 but the
 more clearly we master the leading     
conceptions of science  the better we   
understand that this impression is one  
of the results of  the peculiar         
conditions of our lives1 and not an     
absolute truth4 ,the man  of science    
comes to believe at last that the events
 of the year ,a4,d4  #djjj are as fixed1
 settled1 and unchangeable as the events
 of the year  #afjj4 ,only about the    
latter he has some material for belief  
and about  the former practically none4 
,and the question arises how far this   
absolute ignorance of the future  is a  
fixed and necessary condition of human  
life1 and how far some  application of  
intellectual methods may not attenuate  
even if it does  not absolutely set     
aside the veil between ourselves and    
things to come4  ,and ,i am venturing to

 suggest to you that along certain lines
 and with  certain qualifications and   
limitations a working knowledge of      
things in  the future is a possible and 
practicable thing4 ,and in order to     
support  this suggestion ,i would call  
your attention to certain facts about   
our  knowledge of the past1 and more    
particularly ,i would insist upon this1 
that about the past our range of        
absolute certainty is very limited      
indeed4 ,about the past ,i would suggest
 we are inclined to overestimate  our   
certainty1 just as ,i think we are      
inclined to underestimate the           
certainties of the future4 ,and such a  
knowledge of the past as we have  is not
 all of the same sort or derived from   
the same sources4    ,let us consider   
just what an educated man of to-day     
knows of the past4  ,first of all he has
 the realest of all knowledge--the      
knowledge of his  own personal          
experiences1 his memory4 ,uneducated    
people believe their  memories          

absolutely1 and most educated people    
believe them with a few  reservations4  
,some of us take up a critical attitude 
even toward our own  memories2 we know  
that they not only sometimes drop things
 out1 but that  sometimes a sort of     
dreaming or a strong suggestion will put
 things in4  ,but for all that1 memory  
remains vivid and real as no other      
knowledge  can be1 and to have seen and 
heard and felt is to be nearest to      
absolute  conviction4 ,yet our memory of
 direct impressions is only the smallest
  part of what we know4 ,outside that   
bright area comes knowledge of a        
different order--the knowledge brought  
to us by other people4 ,outside  our    
immediate personal memory there comes   
this wider area of facts or  quasi facts
 told us by more or less trustworthy    
people1 told us by word  of mouth or by 
the written word of living and of dead  
writers4 ,this is  the past of report1  
rumor1 tradition1 and history--the      
second sort of  knowledge of the past4  

,the nearer knowledge of this sort is   
abundant  and clear and detailed1       
remoter it becomes vaguer1 still more   
remotely  in time and space it dies down
 to brief1 imperfect inscriptions and   
enigmatical traditions1 and at last dies
 away1 so far as the records and        
traditions of humanity go1 into a doubt 
and darkness as blank1 just as  blank1  
as futurity4    ,and now let me remind  
you that this second zone of knowledge  
outside  the bright area of what we have
 felt and witnessed and handled for     
ourselves--this zone of hearsay and     
history and tradition--completed the    
whole knowledge of the past that was    
accessible to ,shakespeare1 for         
example4 ,to these limits man's         
knowledge of the past was absolutely    
confined1 save for some inklings and    
guesses1 save for some small1  almost   
negligible beginnings1 until the        
nineteenth century began4  ,besides the 
correct knowledge in this scheme of     
hearsay and history  a man had a certain

 amount of legend and error that rounded
 off the  picture in a very satisfactory
 and misleading way1 according to       
,bishop  ,ussher1 just exactly #djjd    
years ,b4,c4 ,and that was man's        
universal  history--that was his        
all--until the scientific epoch began4  
,and beyond  those limits--8 ,well1 ,i  
suppose the educated man of the         
sixteenth  century was as certain of the
 non-existence of anything before the   
creation of the world as he was1 and as 
most of us are still1 of  the practical 
non-existence of the future1 or at any  
rate he was as  satisfied of the        
impossibility of knowledge in the one   
direction as in  the other4    ,but     
modern science1 that is to say the      
relentless systematic criticism  of     
phenomena1 has in the past hundred years
 absolutely destroyed the  conception of
 a finitely distant beginning of things2
 has abolished such  limits to the past 
as a dated creation set1 and added an   
enormous vista  to that limited         

sixteenth century outlook4 ,and what ,i 
would insist upon  is that this further 
knowledge is a new kind of knowledge1   
obtained in  a new kind of way4 ,we know
 to-day1 quite as confidently and in    
many  respects more intimately than we  
know ,sargon or ,zenobia or ,caractacus1
  the form and the habits of creatures  
that no living being has ever met1  that
 no human eye has ever regarded1 and the
 character of scenery that  no man has  
ever seen or can ever possibly see2 we  
picture to ourselves  the labyrinthodon 
raising its clumsy head above the water 
of the  carboniferous swamps in which he
 lived1 and we figure the pterodactyls1 
those great bird lizards1 flapping their
 way athwart the forests of  the        
,mesozoic age with exactly the same     
certainty as that with which we  picture
 the rhinoceros or the vulture4 ,i doubt
 no more about the facts  in this       
farther picture than ,i do about those  
in the nearest4 ,i believe  in the      
megatherium which ,i have never seen as 

confidently as ,i believe  in the       
hippopotamus that has engulfed buns from
 my hand4 ,a vast amount  of detail in  
that farther picture is now fixed and   
finite for all time4  ,and a countless  
number of investigators are persistently
 and confidently  enlarging1 amplifying1
 correcting1 and pushing farther and    
farther  back the boundaries of this    
greater past--this prehuman past--that  
the  scientific criticism of existing   
phenomena has discovered and restored   
and brought for the first time into the 
world of human thought4 ,we have  become
 possessed of a new and once unsuspected
 history of the world--of  which all the
 history that was known1 for example1 to
 ,dr4 ,johnson is  only the brief       
concluding chapter2 and even that       
concluding chapter  has been greatly    
enlarged and corrected by the exploring 
archologists  working strictly upon the 
lines of the new method--that is to say1
 the  comparison and criticism of       
suggestive facts4    ,i want            

particularly to insist upon this1 that  
all this outer past--this               
non-historical past--is the product of a
 new and keener habit of  inquiry1 and  
no sort of revelation4 ,it is simply due
 to a new and more  critical way of     
looking at things4 ,our knowledge of the
 geological past1  clear and definite as
 it has become1 is of a different and   
lower order  than the knowledge of our  
memory1 and yet of a quite practicable  
and  trustworthy order--a knowledge good
 enough to go upon2 and if one were  to 
speak of the private memory as the      
personal past1 of the next wider  area  
of knowledge as the traditional or      
historical past1 then one might  call   
all that great and inspiring background 
of remoter geological time  the         
inductive past4    ,and this great      
discovery of the inductive past was got 
by the discussion  and rediscussion and 
effective criticism of a number of      
existing  facts1 odd-shaped lumps of    
stone1 streaks and bandings in quarries 

and cliffs1 anatomical and developmental
 detail that had always been  about in  
the world1 that had been lying at the   
feet of mankind so long  as mankind had 
existed1 but that no one had ever       
dreamed before could  supply any        
information at all1 much more reveal    
such astounding and  enlightening       
vistas4 ,looked at in a new way they    
became sources of  dazzling and         
penetrating light4 ,the remoter past lit
 up and became a  picture4 ,considered  
as effects1 compared and criticised1    
they yielded a  clairvoyant vision of   
the history of interminable years4      
,and now1 if it has been possible for   
men by picking out a number of          
suggestive and significant looking      
things in the present1 by comparing     
them1 criticising them1 and discussing  
them1 with a perpetual insistence  upon 
,why8 without any guiding tradition1 and
 indeed in the teeth of  established    
beliefs1 to construct this amazing      
searchlight of inference  into the      

remoter past1 is it really1 after all1  
such an extravagant and  hopeless thing 
to suggest that1 by seeking for         
operating causes instead  of for        
fossils1 and by criticising them as     
persistently and thoroughly  as the     
geological record has been criticised1  
it may be possible to  throw a          
searchlight of inference forward instead
 of backward1 and  to attain to a       
knowledge of coming things as clear1 as 
universally  convincing1 and infinitely 
more important to mankind than the clear
  vision of the past that geology has   
opened to us during the nineteenth      
century8    ,let us grant that anything 
to correspond with the memory1 anything 
having the same relation to the future  
that memory has to the past1  is out of 
the question4 ,we cannot imagine1 of    
course1 that we can  ever know any      
personal future to correspond with our  
personal past1 or  any traditional      
future to correspond with our           
traditional past2 but  the possibility  

of an inductive future to correspond    
with that great  inductive past of      
geology and archology is an altogether  
different  thing4    ,i must confess    
that ,i believe quite firmly that an    
inductive knowledge  of a great number  
of things in the future is becoming a   
human  possibility4 ,i believe that the 
time is drawing near when it will be    
possible to suggest a systematic        
exploration of the future4 ,and you must
  not judge the practicability of this  
enterprise by the failures of the  past4
 ,so far nothing has been attempted1 so 
far no first-class mind has  ever       
focused itself upon these issues2 but   
suppose the laws of social  and         
political development1 for example1 were
 given as many brains1 were  given as   
much attention1 criticism1 and          
discussion as we have given to  the laws
 of chemical combination during the last
 fifty years1 what  might we not expect8
    ,to the popular mind of to-day there
 is something very difficult in such  a 

suggestion1 soberly made4 ,but here1 in 
this institution 7the ,royal            
,institution of ,london7 which has      
watched for a whole century over the    
splendid adolescence of science1 and    
where the spirit of science is  surely  
understood1 you will know that as a     
matter of fact prophecy has  always been
 inseparably associated with the idea of
 scientific research4    ,the popular   
idea of scientific investigation is a   
vehement1 aimless  collection of little 
facts1 collected as a bower bird        
collects shells  and pebbles1 in        
methodical little rows1 and out of this 
process1 in  some manner unknown to the 
popular mind1 certain conjuring         
tricks--the  celebrated wonders of      
science--in a sort of accidental way    
emerge4  ,the popular conception of all 
discovery is accident4 ,but you will    
know  that the essential thing in the   
scientific process is not the collection
  of facts1 but the analysis of facts4  
,facts are the raw material and not  the

 substance of science4 ,it is analysis  
that has given us all ordered           
knowledge1 and you know that the aim and
 the test and the justification  of the 
scientific process is not a marketable  
conjuring trick1 but  prophecy4 ,until a
 scientific theory yields confident     
forecasts you  know it is unsound and   
tentative2 it is mere theorizing1 as    
evanescent  as art talk or the phantoms 
politicians talk about4 ,the splendid   
body  of gravitational astronomy1 for   
example1 establishes itself upon  the   
certain forecast of stellar movements1  
and you would absolutely  refuse to     
believe its amazing assertions if it    
were not for these same  unerring       
forecasts4 ,the whole body of medical   
science aims1 and claims  the ability1  
to diagnose4 ,meteorology constantly and
 persistently aims  at prophecy1 and it 
will never stand in a place of honor    
until it can  certainly foretell4 ,the  
chemist forecasts elements before he    
meets  them--it is very properly his    

boast--and the splendid manner in which 
the mind of ,clerk ,maxwell reached in  
front of all experiments and  foretold  
those things that ,marconi has          
materialized is familiar to us  all4    
,all applied mathematics resolves into  
computation to foretell things  which   
otherwise can only be determined by     
trial4 ,even in so unscientific  a      
science as economics there have been    
forecasts4 ,and if ,i am right in       
saying that science aims at prophecy1   
and if the specialist in each  science  
is in fact doing his best now to        
prophesy within the limits of  his      
field1 what is there to stand in the way
 of our building up this  growing body  
of forecast into an ordered picture of  
the future that  will be just as        
certain1 just as strictly science1 and  
perhaps just as  detailed as the picture
 that has been built up within the last 
hundred  years of the geological past8  
,well1 so far and until we bring the    
prophecy down to the affairs of man and 

his children1 it is just as  possible to
 carry induction forward as back2 it is 
just as simple and  sure to work out the
 changing orbit of the earth in the     
future until  the tidal drag hauls one  
unchanging face at last toward the sun  
as it  is to work back to its blazing   
and molten past4 ,until man comes in1   
the inductive future is as real and     
convincing as the inductive past4  ,but 
inorganic forces are the smaller part   
and the minor interest in  this concern4
 ,directly man becomes a factor the     
nature of the problem  changes1 and our 
whole present interest centers on the   
question whether  man is1 indeed1       
individually and collectively           
incalculable1 a new  element which      
entirely alters the nature of our       
inquiry and stamps it at  once as vain  
and hopeless1 or whether his presence   
complicates1 but does  not alter1 the   
essential nature of the induction4 ,how 
far may we hope  to get trustworthy     
inductions about the future of man8     

,well1 ,i think1 on the whole1 we are   
inclined to underrate our chance  of    
certainties in the future1 just as ,i   
think we are inclined to be  too        
credulous about the historical past4    
,the vividness of our personal          
memories1 which are the very essence of 
reality to us1 throws a glamor  of      
conviction over tradition and past      
inductions4 ,but the personal  future   
must in the very nature of things be    
hidden from us so long as  time endures1
 and this black ignorance at our very   
feet--this black  shadow that           
corresponds to the brightness of our    
memories behind  us--throws a glamor of 
uncertainty and unreality over all the  
future4 ,we  are continually surprising 
ourselves by our own will or want of    
will2  the individualities about us are 
continually producing the unexpected1   
and it is very natural to reason that as
 we can never be precisely sure  before 
the time comes what we are going to do  
and feel1 and if we can  never count    

with absolute certainty upon the acts   
and happenings even  of our most        
intimate friends1 how much the more     
impossible is it to  anticipate the     
behavior in any direction of states and 
communities4    ,in reply to which ,i   
would advance the suggestion that an    
increase in  the number of human beings 
considered may positively simplify the  
case instead of complicating it2 that as
 the individuals increase in  number    
they begin to average out4 ,let me      
illustrate this point by a  comparison4 
,angular pit-sand has grains of the most
 varied shapes4  ,examined              
microscopically1 you will find all sorts
 of angles and outlines  and variations4
 ,before you look you can say of no     
particular grain what  its outline will 
be4 ,and if you shoot a load of such    
sand from a cart  you cannot foretell   
with any certainty where any particular 
grain will  be in the heap that you     
make2 but you can tell--you can tell    
pretty  definitely--the form of the heap

 as a whole4 ,and further1 if you pass  
that sand through a series of shoots and
 finally drop it some distance  to the  
ground1 you will be able to foretell    
that grains of a certain  sort of form  
and size will for the most part be found
 in one part of  the heap and grains of 
another sort of form and size will be   
found in  another part of the heap4 ,in 
such a case1 you see1 the thing as a    
whole  may be simpler than its component
 parts1 and this ,i submit is also  the 
case in many human affairs4 ,so that    
because the individual future  eludes us
 completely that is no reason why we    
should not aspire to1 and  discover and 
use1 safe and serviceable1              
generalizations upon countless          
important issues in the human destiny4  
,but there is a very grave and          
important-looking difference between a  
load of sand and a multitude of human   
beings1 and this ,i must face  and      
examine4 ,our thoughts and wills and    
emotions are contagious4 ,an            

exceptional sort of sand grain1 a sand  
grain that was exceptionally  big and   
heavy1 for example1 exerts no influence 
worth considering upon  any other of the
 sand grains in the load4 ,they will    
fall and roll and  heap themselves just 
the same whether that exceptional grain 
is with  them or not2 but an exceptional
 man comes into the world1 a ,csar or a 
,napoleon or a ,peter the ,hermit1 and  
he appears to persuade and convince  and
 compel and take entire possession of   
the sand heap--,i mean the              
community--and to twist and alter its   
destinies to an almost unlimited        
extent4 ,and if this is indeed the case1
 it reduces our project of an  inductive
 knowledge of the future to very small  
limits4 ,to hope to  foretell the birth 
and coming of men of exceptional force  
and genius is  to hope incredibly1 and  
if1 indeed1 such exceptional men do as  
much as  they seem to do in warping the 
path of humanity1 our utmost prophetic  
limit in human affairs is a conditional 

sort of prophecy4 ,if people do  so and 
so1 we can say1 then such and such      
results will follow1 and we  must admit 
that that is our limit4    ,but         
everybody does not believe in the       
importance of the leading man4  ,there  
are those who will say that the whole   
world is different by reason  of        
,napoleon4 ,there are those who will say
 that the world of to-day  would be very
 much as it is now if ,napoleon had     
never been born4 ,other  men would have 
arisen to make ,napoleon's conquests and
 codify the law1  redistribute the      
worn-out boundaries of ,europe and      
achieve all those  changes which we so  
readily ascribe to ,napoleon's will     
alone4 ,there are  those who believe    
entirely in the individual man and those
 who believe  entirely in the forces    
behind the individual man1 and for my   
own part  ,i must confess myself a      
rather extreme case of the latter kind4 
,i must  confess ,i believe that if by  
some juggling with space and time       

,julius  ,csar1 ,napoleon1 ,edward      
,,iv41 ,william the ,conqueror1 ,lord   
,rosebery1 and  ,robert ,burns had all  
been changed at birth it would not have 
produced  any serious dislocation of the
 course of destiny4 ,i believe that     
these  great men of ours are no more    
than images and symbols and instruments 
taken1 as it were1 haphazard by the     
incessant and consistent forces  behind 
them2 they are the pen-nibs ,fate has   
used for her writing1 the  diamonds upon
 the drill that pierces through the     
rock4 ,and the more  one inclines to    
this trust in forces the more one will  
believe in the  possibility of a        
reasoned inductive view of the future   
that will serve  us in politics1 in     
morals1 in social contrivances1 and in a
 thousand  spacious ways4 ,and even     
those who take the most extreme and     
personal  and melodramatic view of the  
ways of human destiny1 who see life as a
  tissue of fairy godmother births and  
accidental meetings and promises  and   

jealousies1 will1 ,i suppose1 admit     
there comes a limit to these            
things--that at last personality dies   
away and the greater forces come  to    
their own4 ,the great man1 however great
 he be1 cannot set back the  whole      
scheme of things2 what he does in right 
and reason will remain1  and what he    
does against the greater creative forces
 will perish4 ,we  cannot foresee him2  
let us grant that4 ,his personal        
difference1 the  splendor of his effect1
 his dramatic arrangement of events will
 be his  own--in other words1 we cannot 
estimate for accidents and accelerations
  and delays2 but if only we throw our  
web of generalization wide enough1  if  
only we spin our rope of induction      
strong enough1 the final result of  the 
great man1 his ultimate surviving       
consequences1 will come within our  net4
    ,such1 then1 is the sort of         
knowledge of the future that ,i believe 
is  attainable and worth attaining4 ,i  
believe that the deliberate direction   

of historical study and of economic and 
social study toward the future  and an  
increasing reference1 a deliberate and  
courageous reference1  to the future in 
moral and religious discussion1 would be
 enormously  stimulating and enormously 
profitable to our intellectual life4 ,i 
have  done my best to suggest to you    
that such an enterprise is now a serious
  and practicable undertaking4 ,but at  
the risk of repetition ,i would call    
your attention to the essential         
difference that must always hold between
  our attainable knowledge of the future
 and our existing knowledge of the      
past4 ,the portion of the past that is  
brightest and most real to each  of us  
is the individual past--the personal    
memory4 ,the portion of the  future that
 must remain darkest and least          
accessible is the individual  future4   
,scientific prophecy will not be        
fortune-telling1 whatever else  it may  
be4 ,those excellent people who cast    
horoscopes1 those illegal  fashionable  

palm-reading ladies who abound so much  
to-day1 in whom  nobody is so foolish as
 to believe1 and to whom everybody is   
foolish  enough to go1 need fear no     
competition from the scientific         
prophets4  ,the knowledge of the future 
we may hope to gain will be general and 
not  individual2 it will be no sort of  
knowledge that will either hamper  us in
 the exercise of our individual free    
will or relieve us of our  personal     
responsibility4    ,and now1 how far is 
it possible at the present time to      
speculate on the  particular outline the
 future will assume when it is          
investigated in  this way8    ,it is    
interesting1 before we answer that      
question1 to take into account  the     
speculations of a certain sect and      
culture of people who already1  before  
the middle of last century1 had set     
their faces toward the  future as the   
justifying explanation of the present4  
,these were the  positivists1 whose     
position is still most eloquently       

maintained and  displayed by ,mr4       
,frederic ,harrison1 in spite of the    
great expansion of  the human outlook   
that has occurred since ,comte4    ,if  
you read ,mr4 ,harrison1 and if you are 
also1 as ,i presume your  presence here 
indicates1 saturated with that new wine 
of more spacious  knowledge that has    
been given the world during the last    
fifty years1  you will have been greatly
 impressed by the peculiar limitations  
of  the positivist conception of the    
future4 ,so far as ,i can gather1 ,comte
  was1 for all practical purposes1      
totally ignorant of that remoter  past  
outside the past that is known to us by 
history1 or if he was  not totally      
ignorant of its existence1 he was1 and  
conscientiously  remained1 ignorant of  
its relevancy to the history of         
humanity4 ,in the  narrow and limited   
past he recognized men had always been  
like the  men of to-day2 in the future  
he could not imagine that they would be 
anything more than men like the men of  

to-day4 ,he perceived1 as we all        
perceive1 that the old social order was 
breaking up1 and after a richly         
suggestive and incomplete analysis of   
the forces that were breaking  it up he 
set himself to plan a new static social 
order to replace it4  ,if you will read 
,comte1 or1 what is much easier and     
pleasanter1 if  you will read ,mr4      
,frederic ,harrison1 you will find this 
conception  constantly apparent--that   
there was once a stable condition of    
society  with humanity1 so to speak1    
sitting down in an orderly and          
respectable  manner2 that humanity has  
been stirred up and is on the move1 and 
that finally it will sit down again on a
 higher plane1 and for good  and all1   
cultured and happy1 in the reorganized  
positivist state4 ,and  since he could  
see nothing beyond man in the future1   
there1 in that  millennial fashion1     
,comte had to end4 ,since he could      
imagine nothing  higher than man1 he had
 to assert that humanity1 and           

particularly the  future of humanity1   
was the highest of all conceivable      
things4 ,all that  was perfectly        
comprehensible in a thinker of the first
 half of the  nineteenth century4 ,but  
we of the early twentieth1 and          
particularly  that growing majority of  
us who have been born since the ,origin 
of  ,species was written1 have no excuse
 for any such limited vision4 ,our      
imaginations have been trained upon a   
past in which the past that  ,comte knew
 is scarcely more than the concluding   
moment4 ,we perceive  that man1 and all 
the world of men1 is no more than the   
present phase  of a development so great
 and splendid that beside this vision   
epics  jingle like nursery rhymes1 and  
all the exploits of humanity shrivel to 
the proportion of castles in the sand4  
,we look back through countless         
millions of years and see the will to   
live struggling out of the  intertidal  
slime1 struggling from shape to shape   
and from power to  power1 crawling and  

then walking confidently upon the land1 
struggling  generation after generation 
to master the air1 creeping down into   
the  darkness of the deep2 we see it    
turn upon itself in rage and hunger  and
 reshape itself anew2 we watch it draw  
nearer and more akin to us1  expanding1 
elaborating itself1 pursuing its        
relentless1 inconceivable  purpose1     
until at last it reaches us and its     
being beats through our  brains and     
arteries1 throbs and thunders in our    
battleships1 roars  through our cities1 
sings in our music1 and flowers in our  
art4 ,and  when1 from that retrospect1  
we turn again toward the future1 surely 
any  thought of finality1 any millennial
 settlement of cultured persons1 has    
vanished from our minds4    ,this fact  
that man is not final is the great      
unmanageable1 disturbing  fact that     
arises upon us in the scientific        
discovery of the future1 and  to my     
mind1 at any rate1 the question what is 
to come after man is the  most          

persistently fascinating and the most   
insoluble question in the  whole world4 
,of course we have no answer4 ,such     
imaginations as we have refuse to  rise 
to the task4    ,but for the nearer     
future1 while man is still man1 there   
are a few  general statements that seem 
to grow more certain4 ,it seems to be   
pretty  generally believed to-day that  
our dense populations are in the opening
  phase of a process of diffusion and   
aeration4 ,it seems pretty inevitable   
also that at least the mass of white    
population in the world will be  forced 
some way up the scale of education and  
personal efficiency in  the next two or 
three decades4 ,it is not difficult to  
collect reasons  for supposing--and such
 reasons have been collected--that in   
the near  future1 in a couple of hundred
 years1 as one rash optimist has        
written1  or in a thousand or so1       
humanity will be definitely and         
conscientiously  organizing itself as a 
great world state--a great world state  

that will  purge from itself much that  
is mean1 much that is bestial1 and much 
that  makes for individual dullness and 
dreariness1 grayness and wretchedness   
in the world of to-day2 and although we 
know that there is nothing  final in    
that world state1 although we see it    
only as something to be  reached and    
passed1 although we are sure there will 
be no such sitting  down to restore and 
perfect a culture as the positivists    
foretell1 yet  few people can persuade  
themselves to see anything beyond that  
except  in the vaguest and most general 
terms4 ,that world state of more vivid1 
beautiful1 and eventful people is1 so to
 speak1 on the brow of the hill1  and we
 cannot see over1 though some of us can 
imagine great uplands  beyond and       
something1 something that glitters      
elusively1 taking first  one form and   
then another1 through the haze4 ,we can 
see no detail1  we can see nothing      
definable1 and it is simply1 ,i know1   
the sanguine  necessity of our minds    

that makes us believe those uplands of  
the  future are still more gracious and 
splendid than we can either hope or     
imagine4 ,but of things that can be     
demonstrated we have none4    ,yet ,i   
suppose most of us entertain certain    
necessary persuasions1  without which a 
moral life in this world is neither a   
reasonable nor a  possible thing4 ,all  
this paper is built finally upon certain
 negative  beliefs that are incapable of
 scientific establishment4 ,our lives   
and  powers are limited1 our scope in   
space and time is limited1 and it is    
not unreasonable that for fundamental   
beliefs we must go outside the  sphere  
of reason and set our feet upon faith4  
,implicit in all such  speculations as  
this is a very definite and quite       
arbitrary belief1 and  that belief is   
that neither humanity nor in truth any  
individual human  being is living its   
life in vain4 ,and it is entirely by an 
act of faith  that we must rule out of  
our forecasts certain possibilities1    

certain  things that one may consider   
improbable and against the chances1 but 
that no one upon scientific grounds can 
call impossible4    ,one must admit that
 it is impossible to show why certain   
things should  not utterly destroy and  
end the entire human race and story1 why
 night  should not presently come down  
and make all our dreams and efforts     
vain4  ,it is conceivable1 for example1 
that some great unexpected mass of      
matter should presently rush upon us out
 of space1 whirl sun and planets  aside 
like dead leaves before the breeze1 and 
collide with and utterly  destroy every 
spark of life upon this earth4 ,so far  
as positive human  knowledge goes1 this 
is a conceivably possible thing4 ,there 
is nothing  in science to show why such 
a thing should not be4 ,it is           
conceivable1  too1 that some pestilence 
may presently appear1 some new disease1 
that  will destroy1 not #aj or #ae or   
#bj per cent4 of the earth's inhabitants
  as pestilences have done in the past1 

but #ajj per cent42 and so end  our     
race4 ,no one1 speaking from scientific 
grounds alone1 can say1  ,that cannot   
be4 ,and no one can dispute that some   
great disease of the  atmosphere1 some  
trailing cometary poison1 some great    
emanation of vapor  from the interior of
 the earth1 such as ,mr4 ,shiel has made
 a brilliant  use of in his ,purple     
,cloud1 is consistent with every        
demonstrated  fact in the world4 ,there 
may arise new animals to prey upon us by
 land  and sea1 and there may come some 
drug or a wrecking madness into the     
minds of men4 ,and finally1 there is the
 reasonable certainty that this  sun of 
ours must radiate itself toward         
extinction2 that1 at least1 must        
happen2 it will grow cooler and cooler1 
and its planets will rotate ever  more  
sluggishly until some day this earth of 
ours1 tideless and slow  moving1 will be
 dead and frozen1 and all that has lived
 upon it will be  frozen out and done   
with4 ,there surely man must end4 ,that 

of all such  nightmares is the most     
insistently convincing4    ,and yet one 
doesn't believe it4    ,at least ,i do  
not4 ,and ,i do not believe in these    
things because ,i have  come to believe 
in certain other things--in the         
coherency and purpose in  the world and 
in the greatness of human destiny4      
,worlds may freeze and  suns may perish1
 but there stirs something within us now
 that can never  die again4    ,do not  
misunderstand me when ,i speak of the   
greatness of human destiny4    ,if ,i   
may speak quite openly to you1 ,i will  
confess that1 considered as  a final    
product1 ,i do not think very much of   
myself or 7saving your  presence7 my    
fellow-creatures4 ,i do not think ,i    
could possibly join in  the worship of  
humanity with any gravity or sincerity4 
,think of it6  ,think of the positive   
facts4 ,there are surely moods for all  
of us when  one can feel ,swift's       
amazement that such a being should deal 
in pride4  ,there are moods when one can

 join in the laughter of ,democritus2   
and  they would come oftener were not   
the spectacle of human littleness so    
abundantly shot with pain4 ,but it is   
not only with pain that the world  is   
shot--it is shot with promise4 ,small as
 our vanity and carnality make  us1     
there has been a day of still smaller   
things4 ,it is the long ascent  of the  
past that gives the lie to our despair4 
,we know now that all the  blood and    
passion of our life were represented in 
the ,carboniferous time  by             
something--something1 perhaps1          
cold-blooded and with a clammy skin1    
that lurked between air and water1 and  
fled before the giant amphibia of  those
 days4    ,for all the folly1 blindness1
 and pain of our lives1 we have come    
some  way from that4 ,and the distance  
we have travelled gives us some earnest 
of the way we have yet to go4    ,why   
should things cease at man8 ,why should 
not this rising curve rise  yet more    
steeply and swiftly8 ,there are many    

things to suggest that  we are now in a 
phase of rapid and unprecedented        
development4 ,the  conditions under     
which men live are changing with an     
ever-increasing  rapidity1 and1 so far  
as our knowledge goes1 no sort of       
creatures have  ever lived under        
changing conditions without undergoing  
the profoundest  changes themselves4 ,in
 the past century there was more change 
in  the conditions of human life than   
there had been in the previous  thousand
 years4 ,a hundred years ago inventors  
and investigators were  rare scattered  
men1 and now invention and inquiry are  
the work of an  unorganized army4 ,this 
century will see changes that will dwarf
 those of  the nineteenth century1 as   
those of the nineteenth dwarf those of  
the  eighteenth4 ,one can see no sign   
anywhere that this rush of change will  
be over presently1 that the positivist  
dream of a social reconstruction  and of
 a new static culture phase will ever be
 realized4 ,human society  never has    

been quite static1 and it will presently
 cease to attempt  to be static4        
,everything seems pointing to the belief
 that we are  entering upon a progress  
that will go on1 with an ever-widening  
and ever  more confident stride1        
forever4 ,the reorganization of society 
that is  going on now beneath the       
traditional appearance of things is a   
kinetic  reorganization4 ,we are getting
 into marching order4 ,we have struck   
our  camp forever and we are out upon   
the roads4    ,we are in the beginning  
of the greatest change that humanity has
 ever  undergone4 ,there is no shock1 no
 epoch-making incident--but then  there 
is no shock at a cloudy daybreak4 ,at no
 point can we say1 ,here  it commences1 
now2 last minute was night and this is  
morning4 ,but  insensibly we are in the 
day4 ,if we care to look1 we can foresee
 growing  knowledge1 growing order1 and 
presently a deliberate improvement of   
the  blood and character of the race4   
,and what we can see and imagine gives  

us a measure and gives us faith for what
 surpasses the imagination4    ,it is   
possible to believe that all the past is
 but the beginning of a  beginning1 and 
that all that is and has been is but the
 twilight of the  dawn4 ,it is possible 
to believe that all that the human mind 
has ever  accomplished is but the dream 
before the awakening4 ,we cannot see1   
there  is no need for us to see1 what   
this world will be like when the day has
  fully come4 ,we are creatures of the  
twilight4 ,but it is out of our race    
and lineage that minds will spring1 that
 will reach back to us in our           
littleness to know us better than we    
know ourselves1 and that will reach     
forward fearlessly to comprehend this   
future that defeats our eyes4    ,all   
this world is heavy with the promise of 
greater things1 and a day  will come1   
one day in the unending succession of   
days1 when beings1  beings who are now  
latent in our thoughts and hidden in our
 loins1  shall stand upon this earth as 

one stands upon a footstool1 and shall  
laugh and reach out their hands amid the
 stars4          ,,the ,,art of ,,life  
,,series    ,,edward ,,howard ,,griggs1 
,editor      ,the aim of this series of 
brief books is to illuminate the        
never-to-be-finished art of living4     
,there is no thought of solving the     
problems or giving dogmatic theories of 
conduct4 ,rather the purpose is  to     
bring together in brief form the        
thoughts of some wise minds and the     
insight and appreciation of some deep   
characters1 trained in the actual  world
 of experience but attaining a vision of
 life in clear and wide  perspective4   
,such books should act as a challenge to
 the reader's own  mind1 bringing him to
 a clearer recognition of the problems  
of his life  and the laws governing     
them1 deepening his insight into the    
wonder and  meaning of life and         
developing an attitude of appreciation  
that may make  possible the wise and    
earnest facing of the deeps1 dark or    

beautiful1 in  the life of the personal 
spirit4--,from the ,editor's            
,introduction to the  ,series1 printed  
in full in ,the ,use of the ,margin4    
,volumes ready3    ,,where ,,knowledge  
,,fails      ,by ,earl ,barnes    ,,the 
,,sixth ,,sense4 ,its cultivation and   
use4      ,by ,charles ,h4 ,brent       
,,the ,,burden ,,of ,,poverty4 ,what to 
do4      ,by ,charles ,f4 ,dole         
,,human ,,equipment4 ,its use and abuse4
      ,by ,edward ,howard ,griggs       
,,the ,,use ,,of ,,the ,,margin      ,by
 ,edward ,howard ,griggs    ,,things    
,,worth ,,while      ,by ,thomas        
,wentworth ,higginson                   
,,self-,,measurement4 ,a scale of human 
values with directions for personal     
application4      ,by ,william ,de,witt 
,hyde    ,,the ,,super ,,race4 ,an      
,american problem4      ,by ,scott      
,nearing    ,,product ,,and ,,climax    
,by ,simon ,nelson ,patten    ,,latter  
,,day ,,sinners ,,and ,,saints      ,by 
,edward ,alsworth ,ross    ,each #ej    

cents net2 by mail1 #ee cents    ,to be 
had of all booksellers or the publisher 
,b4 ,w4 ,,huebsch      #bbe ,fifth      
,avenue    ,new ,york                99 
99      99      99      99      99      
,transcriber's note3      ,this text has
 been preserved as in the original1     
including archaic and  inconsistent     
spelling1 punctuation and grammar1      
except that obvious  printer's errors   
have been corrected4