Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-11-25

Declares the Worlds Desire
Is Stronger Than
2Ss knowledge.

Boston, Nov. 25.-S"Wc are not
merely making no progress in most
branches life, but we are rapidly go
n g8backward because we are content
to tool ourselves into the belief that
desire is stronger than knowledge
was%she Assertion of Professor kir-
sop Lake Of the Harvard Divinity
school before the members OF the
Twentieth Century club at Il lunchecI
Professor Lake spoke or II subject,
''Is8the Human Race Making n
Real ProgressGE"S
An abstract of his address follows:
SSIt Is somewhat of a shock to dis
>pysr that the idea of progress is quite
modern. but no n who has read Pro-
fesDDr Bury's book on the Idea Of
Progress can doubt that 1t is only in
the last two hundred years that the
notion of progress has been dominant.
Bury thinks that 1t Il the modern sub
stitute for the idea of Providence. but
he would probably be nearer h truth
il he had said salvation. The modern
man has often ceased to hope for SAL
walton, or to fear damnation but he
would be greatly depressed II he
thought that he were not making
In general that the world, assisted by
hiaisefforts. is better than it used to
besand that 1t will go on indefinitely
becoming better 1t is a most COM
forting creed, but is it true?
I'm the first place. so far as the
last part Of the proposition which on
Germs the permanent nature of prog
ress, there is certainly no ground for
believing it. If science has anything
to say with certainty about the future
1t is that this race is as mortal as the
members which compose it and that
the planet pom which we live is grad
ually becoming unfit to sustain human
life. Science does not him that a final
conhaEration is the probable end of
the human race only because it be-
lieves that W. shall all be frozen be-
fore the planet collides with something
else and becomes warmed up again to
renewed activity. Thus infinite prog
reas is, IL not impossible, at least ex-
Extraordinarily unlikely.
Moreover. il we stop to ask what
we mean by the word better the diff
fculty is apparent that the word bet
ter only means a certain measure OF
self-approval applied t the present
and denied to the past. What is the
standard of good which is implied?
The phrase is meaningless unless we
conceive, as h Stoics and Epicureans
used to. that the human mind has u
natural perception of first principles
which are their W proof. If that is
not%true, the whole idea is an illusion;
1t is natures trick for keeping man in
motion, in the squirrels cage of ex-
fstence. Or = should perhaps be COM
pared to the bunch of<carrots attached
to pole by which ingenious farmers
are said to have cheated into activity
their indolent asses. Man never Is,
blu always to be. blessed is a spur to
activity. no a prediction of the future.
Surprising, however, we admit, as I
think we should, that value judgments
reSa as true as n perceptions are.
progress really means the belief that
wesaAlre c~onquerfrg circumstances and
notsyieldtnst toSthem. The physicist
maybe right in telling US that circum-
stances are bound to win in. the long
run. but the historian afrirrnrs that
there have been times when circum-
stances have been driven back and
man has become free from their
tyranny.
How then do we now stand in re-
lation to circumstances? Probably we
are far freer from. and have more
control over, physical circumstances
ever before in the world. 1t is
doubtful whether that is true econom-
ically, politically or individually. The
reason why the scientific man can
make a much better case than anyone
else is because he alone has realized
n a we cannot change facts or cir
cumstances except by finding out the
truth about them. The rest of the
world is still under the impression
thai 1t IAN do as it wishes. That il
cafsissue a decree. for instance, that
political life or economic life shall be
thus and so n it will be: the mar
Of science knows that his business is
to discover what the facts really are
and that, having knowledge, he can
control. We are not merely making nc
progress in most branches of life, but
we are going rapidly backward be-
cause we are content to fool ourselves
into the belief that desire is stronger
than knowledge"