78 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
for happiness .... Our science, which is becoming more and more able to preserve and strengthen to men their gift of life, would indeed offer but a joyless task to its administrators, if they had not the hope that the lives they endeavor to maintain would be lives of growing worth and happiness." The sanitarian is right in regarding his special field of work in relation to the higher activities of mankind. He should require that, in his own mind at least, every principle studied, every reform advo- cated, every plea made, should be considered in the light of its role as a part of the foundation for the highest and best expres- sion of life, whether it be physical, intellectual, moral or spiritual. The sound body is of little use save as it can help in the manifestation of sound mental and spiritual activities. The house which is sanitarily perfect has a small function in the economy of life unless it contributes to the upbuilding of men with perfect minds and souls. And even though figures may fail for the proof, the sanitarian is justified in consciously striving after and demanding such results. As Emerson says "A house should bear witness in all its economy that human culture is the end to which it is built and garnished. It is not for fes- tivity. It is not for sleep. But the pine and the oak shall gladly descend from the mountains to uphold the roof of men as faith- ful and necessary as themselves, to be the shelter always open to the good and the true, a hall which shines with sincerity, brows ever tranquil, and a demeanor impossible to disconcert." If general assent is given to the proposition that the sanita- rian has a part to play in promoting all the highest and best activities of mankind, the converse equally must be true that, if the sociologist is to study the facts of associated human activities with a view to social amelioration, he is but a partial and, in so far, a worthless observer, if he ignores the data which the sani- tarian can furnish. The social reformer who overlooks or mini- mizes the influence of unsanitary physical conditions on the development of man robs himself of a weapon of great power. A careful and logical thinker would hardly believe that this could be done and yet there is ample evidence that frequently
