Part 9

If the machine with which he has believed himself to be storming a childish wish ever brought him to a state of effortless ease on earth, that would be his last.

It may be a power he is yet morally unprepared to exercise. How strange at least that with an incentive so trivial and naïve in itself he should have been able to perform an absolute feat of creation!

The machine was not. He reached his mind into emptiness and seized it. Even yet he cannot realize what he has done. Out of the free elemental stuff of the universe, visible and invisible, some of it imponderable, such as lightning, he has invented a class of typhonic, mindless organisms, exempt from the will of nature.

We have no understanding of creation, its process or meaning. The machine is the externalized image of man’s thoughts. It is furthermore an extension of his life, for we perceive as an economic fact that human existence in its present phase, on its present scale, could not continue in its absence. And what are we ourselves, life to begin with, if not an image of thought? Perhaps it is true as a principle of creation that the image and its creator must co-exist, inseparably.

In any light, man’s further task is Jovian. That is to learn how best to live with these powerful creatures of his mind, how to give their fecundity a law and their functions a rhythm, how not to employ them in error against himself—since he cannot live without them.

Each, pott 8vo, 2/6 net Occasionally illustrated

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW

This series of books, by some of the most distinguished English thinkers, scientists, philosophers, doctors, critics, and artists, was at once recognized as a noteworthy event. Written from various points of view, one book frequently opposing the argument of another, they provide the reader with a stimulating survey of the most modern thought in many departments of life. Several volumes are devoted to the future trend of Civilization, conceived as a whole; while others deal with particular provinces, and cover the future of Woman, War, Population, Clothes, Wireless, Morals, Drama, Poetry, Art, Sex, Law, etc.

It is interesting to see in these neat little volumes, issued at a low price, the revival of a form of literature, the Pamphlet, which has been in disuse for 200 years.

Published by KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. Broadway House: 68-74 Carter Lane, London, E.C.4

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW

VOLUMES READY

=Daedalus=, or Science and the Future. By J. B. S. HALDANE, Reader in Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. Sixth impression.

“A fascinating and daring little book.”—Westminster Gazette. “The essay is brilliant, sparkling with wit and bristling with challenges.”—British Medical Journal.

“Predicts the most startling changes.”—Morning Post.

=Callinicus=, a Defence of Chemical Warfare. By J. B. S. HALDANE. Second impression.

“Mr. Haldane’s brilliant study.”—Times Leading Article. “A book to be read by every intelligent adult.”—Spectator. “This brilliant little monograph.”—Daily News.

=Icarus=, or the Future of Science. By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. Fourth impression.

“Utter pessimism.”—Observer. “Mr. Russell refuses to believe that the progress of Science must be a boon to mankind.”—Morning Post. “A stimulating book, that leaves one not at all discouraged.”—Daily Herald.

=What I Believe.= By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. Second impression.

“One of the most brilliant and thought-stimulating little books I have read—a better book even than Icarus.”—Nation. “Simply and brilliantly written.”—Nature. “In stabbing sentences he punctures the bubble of cruelty, envy, narrowness, and ill-will which those in authority call their morals.”—New Leader.

=Tantalus=, or the Future of Man. By F. C. S. SCHILLER, D.Sc., Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Second impression.

“They are all (Daedalus, Icarus, and Tantalus) brilliantly clever, and they supplement or correct one another.”—Dean Inge, in Morning Post. “Immensely valuable and infinitely readable.”—Daily News. “The book of the week.”—Spectator.

=Cassandra=, or the Future of the British Empire. By F. C. S. SCHILLER, D.Sc.

“We commend it to the complacent of all parties.”—Saturday Review. “The book is small, but very, very weighty; brilliantly written, it ought to be read by all shades of politicians and students of politics.”—Yorkshire Post. “Yet another addition to that bright constellation of pamphlets.”—Spectator.

=Quo Vadimus?= Glimpses of the Future. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, D.Sc., author of “Selenium, the Moon Element,” etc.

“A wonderful vision of the future. A book that will be talked about.”—Daily Graphic. “A remarkable contribution to a remarkable series.”—Manchester Dispatch. “Interesting and singularly plausible.”—Daily Telegraph.

=Hephaestus=, the Soul of the Machine. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, D.Sc.