Redaksie | Editorial
I
n this month’s edition we tried to pro-
vide our readers with more insight on
the role of science and technology in ag-
riculture. However, the quote below
(although written almost 200 years ago) ac-
tually reminds us to where it all started and
where it is most likely going.
Ask a follower of [Francis] aBacon what [science
and technology] the new philosophy, as it was
called in the time of Charles the Second, has
effected for mankind, and his answer is ready;
“It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it
has extinguished diseases; it has increased the
fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to
the mariner; it has furnished new arms to the
warrior; it has spanned great rivers and estuar-
ies with bridges of form unknown to our fa-
thers; it has guided the thunderbolt innocuous-
ly from heaven to earth; it has lighted up the
night with the splendour of the day; it has ex-
tended the range of the human vision; it has
multiplied the power of the human muscles; it
has accelerated motion; it has annihilated dis-
tance; it has facilitated intercourse, corre-
spondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of
business; it has enabled man to descend to the
depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to pene-
trate securely into the noxious recesses of the
earth, to traverse the land in cars which whirl
along without horses, to cross the ocean in
ships which run ten knots an hour against the
wind. These are but a part of its fruits, and of
its first-fruits; for it is a philosophy which never
rests, which has never attained, which is never
perfect. Its law is progress. A point which yes-
terday was invisible is its goal to-day, and will
be its starting-point to-morrow.”
Thomas
Babington Macaulay
From essay (Jul 1837) on 'Francis Bacon' in
Edinburgh Review. In Baron Thomas Babing-
ton Macaulay and Lady Trevelyan (ed.) The
Works of Lord Macaulay Complete (1871), Vol.
6, 222.
On behalf of the AgriKultuur/Culture team, I
would like to wish all our readers a blessed
Easter.
Until next time
Chris