To say that we live in an age of science is a common- place, but like most commonplaces it is only partially true. From the point of view of our predecessors, if they could view our society, we should, no doubt, appear to be very scientific, but from the point of view of our successors it is probable that the exact opposite would seem to be the case.

Science as a factor in human life is exceedingly recent. Art was already well developed before the last glacial epoch, as we know from the admirable pictures in caves ; of the antiquity of religion we cannot speak with equal confidence, but it is highly probable that it is coeval with art. At a guess one might suppose that both have existed for some eighty thousand years. Science as an important force begins with Galileo, and has therefore existed for some three hundred years. During the first half of that short period it remained a pursuit of the learned, which did not affect the thoughts or habits of ordinary men.

It is only during the last hundred and fifty years that science has become an important factor in determining the everyday life of everyday people. In that short time it has caused greater changes than had occurred since the days of the ancient Egyptians. One hundred and fifty years of science have proved more explosive than five thousand years of pre- scientific culture. It would be absurd to suppose that the explosive power of science is exhausted, or has even reached its maximum. It is far more likely that science will continue for centuries to come to produce more and more rapid changes.

One may suppose that a new equilibrium will ultimately be reached, either when so much is known that a lifetime is not sufficient to reach the frontiers of knowledge, and therefore further discovery must await some considerable increase of longevity, or when men become bored with the new toy, become weary of the strenuousness required in the making of scientific advances, and become content to enjoy the fruits of former labours, as the late Romans enjoyed the aqueducts built by their predecessors. Or again it may prove that no scientific society is capable of stability and that a reversion to barbarism is a necessary condition of the continuance of human life.

Such speculations, however, though they may amuse an idle moment, are too nebulous to have any practical importance. What is important at the present time is that the influence of science upon our thoughts, our hopes, and our habits is continually increasing and likely to increase for several centuries at least.