TANTALUS OR THE FUTURE OF MAN TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW SERIES DAEDALUS, or Science and the Future _By J. B. S. Haldane_ ICARUS, or The Future of Science _By Bertrand Russell, F. R. S._ THE MONGOL IN OUR MIDST _By F. G. Crookshank, M.D._ WIRELESS POSSIBILITIES _By Prof. A. M. Low_ NARCISSUS, or The Anatomy of Clothes _By Gerald Heard_ TANTALUS, or The Future of Man _By F. C. S. Schiller_ IN PREPARATION THE PASSING OF THE PHANTOMS _By Professor Patten_ WOMAN AND THE FUTURE _By Anthony M. Ludovici_ E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY TANTALUS OR The Future of Man BY F. C. S. SCHILLER _M.A., D.Sc.; Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi College, Oxford_ [Illustration] _Man never is, but always to be, blest_ NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE Copyright 1924 By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY _All Rights Reserved_ _First Printing, November, 1924 Second Printing, March, 1925_ Printed in the United States of America PREFACE I rather anticipate that superficial critics who do not like the argument of this essay will accuse it of pessimism, a charge which perhaps means little more than that they do not like it. Nevertheless, it may be worth while to point out, (1) that pessimism is not a logical objection to a contention of which the truth cannot otherwise be questioned, and (2) that though the argument of _Tantalus_ may be said generally to corroborate that of _Daedalus_ and _Icarus_, yet its conclusion is much less pessimistic than theirs, because (3) it makes it very plain that the evils which threaten the future of mankind are in no case unavoidable. If it is called ‘pessimism’ to point out the methods by which men may escape destruction, because men do not care to adopt them, I suppose it must be ‘optimism’ to rush violently and open-eyed down a precipice, and to expect to be saved by a miracle. Certainly such would appear to be the belief upon which human affairs are at present conducted. F.C.S.S. TANTALUS TANTALUS PROLOGUE: THE ORACLE OF THE DEAD When I read in Mr Haldane’s _Daedalus_ the wonderful things that Science was going to do for us, and in Mr Russell’s _Icarus_ how easily both we and it might come to grief in consequence, it at once became plain to me that of all the heroes of antiquity Tantalus would be the one best fitted to prognosticate the probable future of Man. For, if we interpret the history of Daedalus as meaning the collapse of Minoan civilization under the strain imposed on its moral fibre by material progress, and the fate of Icarus as meaning man’s inability to use the powers of the air without crashing, one could gauge the probability that history would repeat itself still further, and that man would once more allow his vices to cheat him of the happiness that seemed so clearly within his reach.