Political theoretical understanding, although almost at a standstill during this century, did develop during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and resulted in a flood of inventions which increased the possibility for man to coexist with man. Constitutional government, popular vote, trial by jury, public education, labor unions, cooperatives, communes, socialized ownership, world courts, and the veto power in world councils are but a few examples. Most of these, with horrible exceptions, were conceived as is a ship, not as an attempt to quell the ocean of mankind, nor to deny its force, but as a means to survive and enjoy it. The most effective political inventions seem to make maximum use of natural harbors and are aware that restraining breakwaters can play only a minor part in the whole scheme. Just as present technology had to await the explanations of physics, so one might expect that social invention will follow growing sociological understanding. We are desperately in the need of such invention, for man is still very much at the mercy of man. In fact the accumulation of the hardware of destruction is day by day increasing our fear of each other.

I want, therefore, to discuss a second and quite different fruit of science, the connection between scientific understanding and fear. There are certainly large areas of understanding in the human sciences which in themselves and even without political invention can help to dispel our present fears. Lucretius has remarked: ``The reason why all Mortals are so gripped by fear is that they see all sorts of things happening in the earth and sky with no discernable cause, and these they attribute to the will of God.'' Perhaps things were even worse then. It is difficult to reconstruct the primeval fears of man. We get some clue from a few remembrances of childhood and from the circumstance that we are probably not much more afraid of people now than man ever was. We are not now afraid of atomic bombs in the same way that people once feared comets. The bombs are as harmless as an automobile in a garage. We are worried about what people may do with them -- that some crazy fool may ``push the button.''