122 THE SHADOW OF THE WORLD’S FUTURE 
standards of living, or both combined, is perilously 
near. Within periods of time, insignificant compared 
with geologic ages, the multiplying force of living 
things, man included, must receive a tremendous 
check.” 
And we went on to add the following :— 
“The present rate of increase in the world’s popula- 
tion cannot continue. . . . The extraordinary increase 
in the standard of living, which has characterised the 
last few decades, must quickly be brought to a stand- 
stil, or be determined by the destructive forces of 
human extravagance. Very soon the world-politic 
will have to face the question, whether it is better 
that there should be larger numbers and more modest 
living, or fewer numbers and lavish living; whether 
world-morality should aim at the enjoyment of life 
by a great multitude, or aim at the restriction of life- 
experience to a few, that they may live in relative 
opulence.” 1 
We pointed out that the student of the future would 
“ utilise all discovery of the mysterious play, and no 
less cryptic limitation, of life-force to make prediction 
sure.” And further that with “co-ordinated inter- 
national effort, there would be no difficulty in so 
directing future statistical technique” that a more 
perfect study could be made of the drift of mankind 
“in the more important relations of civic, national, and 
international life ” (p. 454). 
Certainly, in so far as Man is ignorant he is both 
the puppet of fortune and the victim of desire. He 
knows but little of the driving forces in the world of 
life. He sees but the surface of things and his science 
is far from being a perfectly co-ordinated system of 
concepts, representing the world as he beholds it. 
Report of Census, 1911, Appendix A, Vol. I, P- 453.