Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

The Kingdom of Man

Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray

E. Ray Lankester

(English scientist, professor in the University of London, 1847–1929)

THE NEW knowledge of Nature, the newly-ascertained capacity of man for a control of Nature so thorough as to be almost unlimited, has not as yet had an opportunity of showing what it can do. No power has called on man to arise and enter upon the possession of this kingdom—the “Kingdom of Man” foreseen by Francis Bacon and pictured by him to an admiring but incredulous age with all the fervor and picturesque detail of which he was capable. And yet at this moment the mechanical difficulties, the want of assurance and of exact knowledge, which necessarily prevented Bacon’s schemes from taking practical shape, have been removed. The will to possess this vast territory is alone wanting.

The weariness which is so largely expressed today in regard to human effort is greatly due to the fact that we have exhausted old sources of inspiration, and have not yet learned to believe in the new. It is time for man to take up whole-heartedly the Kingdom of Nature which it is his destiny to rule. New hope, new life will, when he does this, be infused into every line of human activity. To a community which believes in the destiny of man as the controller of Nature and has consciously entered upon its fulfilment, there can be none of the weariness and even despair which comes from an exclusive worship of the past. There can be only encouragement in every victory gained, hope and the realization of hope.