Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/457

Rh and guarantee of mental, moral, and physical health. And—what we think is not unimportant—our point of view exempts us from all temptation to malign the world, which is the theater of our efforts, or to perform a war dance over the downfall of natural theology. We believe Prof. James could preach a much better and more useful sermon from the verse above quoted than he has done in the essay that has been the subject of our remarks. Or, if he wants a classical authority, let him take the words of Sophocles, who says that, "of those whose lives are kept in the right course, the majority are saved through obedience." Here we have the true counter-blast to pessimism in a simple declaration of the law of life: whoso heeds it is wise; whosowho so [sic] heeds it not will not be won to happiness by argument.

commend to the attention of our readers an article in this number of the Monthly, by President Jordan, of Stanford University, on the subject of "Scientific Temperance." An organization noted more, perhaps, for its emotional than for its rational impulses has, it seems, taken into its own hands the direction of what shall be taught in the schools of the country regarding the effects of alcohol on the human system. If such teachings were characterized by that avoidance of excess which is so desirable where the appetite for drink is concerned, there would be little occasion to complain. Indeed, we believe an honest zeal in the cause of temperance is entitled to the highest respect and to a wholehearted support. There is no denying that much the greater part of the crime and misery with which society is afflicted is caused by the use of alcohol in one form or another, and it has always been the practice of this magazine to aid in the enlightenment of the public on this class of questions whenever the facts warranted such a course. But, on the other hand, we are equally ready to condemn a kind of teaching that tends to dwarf the truth, or to dress it up in a fictitious garb, no matter how good in itself the object may be that it is sought to promote.

In the present case, with the desire apparently to make the instruction concerning the effects of stimulants and narcotics more potent for good, altogether erroneous ideas are conveyed to the pupil regarding the science of the subject. What is tacitly represented as the established results of scientific research is embodied in so-called scientific textbooks as a part of the truths of physiology, but this so much exceeds the facts that the pupil, if not actually misled, is likely to carry away distorted impressions, or wholly lose sight of the modicum of truth which science has been able to work out of the problem. If it were the science of the matter pure and simple that our reformers were after, the two pages of the Indiana text-book that President Jordan quotes would amply cover the ground, and leave space for a few facts that bear the other way, which as a part of the results of research deserve to be impartially presented. Such a treatment might fitly be labeled "scientific," and escape the charge of false pretense. On the contrary, to give the subject sixty pages out of four hundred, with its moral and social aspects lugged in, and to call that "human physiology," is a lesson in deceit that should be denied a place in our public schools. No competent physiologist would make such a book, and no conscientious teacher of science, if permitted the right of choice, would place it in the hands of