Since the dawn of the industrial era scientific knowledge is used increasingly for the purpose of transforming the natural circumstance of human life. Nature is not transcended but transformed in the interest of human happiness. Comforts are multiplied; power is increased; time and distance are destroyed; hours of toil are reduced; natural environment is changed; disease is eliminated and death postponed; the hostilities of nature are overcome and her benevolence multiplied for the sake of human welfare. Our birth may be “but a sleep and a forgetting” but our life is undeniably lived in natural conditions which profoundly affect not only physical well-being but cultural and spiritual character. It is evident therefore that there is profound wisdom in the scientific strategy which transforms the natural world in the interest of the human spirit. Not only is the Western world firmly committed to it, but there are indications that the Orient will adopt it in spite of the opposition of religious leaders such as Gandhi. Whatever perils to the spiritual life may lurk in the preoccupation of the soul with its physical circumstances, it is clear that human personality may be served by improving the natural environment which conditions it. Wealth may lead to sensual excess but it is also the basis of culture. Leisure may be secured by reducing physical wants to a minimum, but there are cultural advantages in a leisure which does not preclude the satisfaction of all reasonable desires. Comforts may lead men to become obsessed with their external circumstances, but they also reduce irrelevant distractions to life’s main purpose. Physical health is not a necessary but a convenient condition for moral and spiritual enterprise.