It is time that men of science assumed a greater position in the general community. If a scientific training has a tithe of the _general_ educational value that is claimed for it, it is time we had some evidence of that fact. Men of science must adopt a higher ideal of personal honour. At present the man who will conduct a laboratory experiment with meticulous precision and describe his results in an agony of honesty will be content to be a prejudiced observer and a slovenly and inaccurate thinker in all other matters. This is the chief reason, we are convinced, why men of science count for so little in public affairs. If the Royal Society elected its own member of Parliament, who would bother about the political opinion so expressed? What greater weight would it have than the political opinion of an equal number of moderately prosperous ordinary citizens? Does not the scientific man waggle his head just as solemnly over his morning newspaper as does any unsophisticated voter? We plead for the development of a class consciousness on the part of the man of science. We want scientific men to regard their ideal of evidence, their conception of proof, their really admirable scientific detachment, not merely as rules making for success in their particular game, but as principles applicable to every subject that concerns a citizen. Why should a man of science be merely a Liberal or a Conservative in politics? The alternative belongs to the stage of mental development that explained the material universe by saying that its moving principle was fire, or, alternatively, water. We expect a more sober contribution to political questions from, say, a distinguished physicist, than the panacea “Shoot the miners.” All the questions on which scientific men now adopt “sides” as uncritically as any simple dupe of the daily press are amenable to scientific investigation. They can reach a solution only by the application of scientific methods, and the modern world badly needs deliverance from the method of charms and incantations by which these questions are at present treated. How long are these vital matters to remain in the hands of the witch-doctors? With scientific men content to sit in the circle and help beat the tom-toms what hope is there of real advance founded on real knowledge? The artists cannot help us; they are useful indicators of the value of the product, as it were; they look pleased or they look disgusted, and that is very helpful in showing us where we are. It is the scientific man who must show us how to go somewhere else. So we plead for the conscious formation of a community of men of science, for scientific men who are at least as pervasively and constantly scientific as a good Jesuit is Roman Catholic. THE SCEPTIC AND THE SPIRITS