{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Science_and_International_Harmony/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Science_and_International_Harmony","id":"wikisource_Science_and_International_Harmony","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Science_and_International_Harmony","summary":null,"tags":["50%","American_speeches","PD-US","Philosophy","Science","Undated_works"],"text":"Facsimile\n\nCARL SCHURZ'S SPEECH\n\nThe next speaker was Carl Schurz, who\nresponded to the toast: \u201cThe progress of science\ntends to international harmony.\u201d He spoke as\nfollows:\n\nMr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Two things that fell\nfrom the lips of the first two speakers struck me as\nremarkably pertinent to our present situation. One was the\nproverb quoted by our worthy chairman, that \u201cstuffed\nbodies see not secret things,\u201d and, great orator that he is,\nhe did not fail to accompany the same with the illustration\nof example. [Laughter.] The other was the\nremark which formed the text of the eloquent\nspeech of Mr. Spencer, that too great continuity\nand intensity of work will necessarily destroy your\nphysical constitution; and I am very sorry to see that\nin this respect he himself appears more like an\nAmerican than an Englishman. [\u201cHear! hear.\u201d] And I hope\nthat when he returns to his country his incessant\nlabors for the benefit of humanity will\nsometimes by interrupted by pure relaxation. Mr.\nSpencer never said a wiser word than this: \u2014 that the\nultimate result of all our efforts to protect men against the\nconsequences of their folly is to people the world with \u2014\nI will not say what he said, \u201cfools\u201d \u2014\nbut I will say with dyspeptic philosophers. I, for my\npart, have resolved to belong to that class.\n\nLeaving the discussion of profound scientific\nand philosophical problems to others who are more\nreckless of their physical well-being, I prefer to call up\nsome pleasant personal memories which this distinguished\noccasion brings to my mind. Some nineteen years\nago, shortly after the battle of Missionary Ridge, I was\ncamped with my command in winter quarters not far\nfrom Chattanooga, where we had so little food for our\nhorses that many of them died, and so little salt that we\ncould scarcely make our beef and hard-tack palatable,\nbut I found in my effects a copy of Herbert\nSpencer's \u201cSocial Statics,\u201d and during those\nlong winter nights in my tent I studied them\nby the light of a tallow candle, and for that delightful\nluxury I shall never cease to be grateful to our\ndistinguished guests. [Applause.] I became convinced that\nif the Southern people had read and\nthoroughly digested that excellent work, there\nwould never have been any war for the dissolution\nof the Union. [Applause.] I essayed to hammer the\nfundamental principles of the \u201cSocial Statics\u201d into the\nheads of the soldiers; namely, that \u201cevery man is entitled\nto the freedom of doing what he wills, provided he\ninterfere not with the same freedom of any other man.\u201d\n[Applause.]\n\nI am supposed to respond to a sentiment touching the\neffect that the progress of science has upon the harmony\nof nations. Looking at it from a common-sense point of\nview, I am moved to think that the effect\nof that progress upon different nations is\nvery much as it may be upon different\nportions of one people or upon different individuals.\nGiven a certain number of subjects of discussion between\ndifferent Nations or different individuals, if the\nprogress of science increases the number of\nthings upon which they agree, it will in the\nsame measure and at the same time diminish\nthe number of things upon which they disagree [laughter],\nand thus lead them to a good understanding and\nNational harmony; and, going on further, if the\nprogress of science increases the number of subjects of\ndiscussion between men and at the same time teaches\nthem how to dispose of those subjects by amicable and\npeaceful reasoning, the less occasion there will be for\nthem to come to blows.\n\nI take it that science and philosophy do not accomplish\ntheir ends merely by enlightening the minds of men,\nbut that they must also influence their conduct,\nand not only the conduct of a chosen\nfew but the conduct of the many; and in order to\ninfluence the conduct of the many they\nmust be understood by the many. There\nwas a time when the investigations of science and their\nresults were carefully kept as a private possession\nby certain social orders or select circles, treating\nthem as a mystery which could not\nbe exposed to the gaze and the understanding\nof the multitude without profanation. That\ntime is happily behind us, but I suppose some\nof us have seen the day when science and philosophy, at\nleast by a good many of its representatives, were\nclothed in such darkness of formidable terminology, and\nof obscure forms of speech, that they were entirely inaccessible\nto the multitude; in fact, by many it was\nconsidered that the man of science might\nbe accused of superficiality if he had discussed those\nproblems of philosophic and scientific research in a\nlanguage intelligible to the rest of mankind.\n\nIn the distinguished man who this evening honors us\nwe greet one of the foremost representatives of that\ngreat development of thought which has burst the bonds\nof the closet; we greet in him the great\napostle of the doctrine of Evolution; we greet\nhim as a hero of thought who has devoted his life to the\nsublime task of vindicating the divine right of science\nas against the intolerant authority of traditional belief.\n[Applause.]\n\nThis work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1931.\n\nThis work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.\n\nPublic domainPublic domainfalsefalse","title":"Science and International Harmony","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":927}