THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 5^7 



All these methods have been used more or less by all thinlcing men. 

 But for the purpose of ready classification it may be said that the first 

 has been used chiefly by dogmatists, including especially the founders 

 and advocates of all fixed creeds from the atheistic and the pantheistic 

 to the theistic and the humanistic ; the second has been used chiefly by 

 humanists, including historians, publicists, jurists and men of letters; 

 and the third has been used chiefly by scientists, including astronomers, 

 mathematicians, physicists, naturalists, and more recently the group 

 of investigators falling under the comprehensive head of anthropologists. 

 The first and third methods are frequently found to be mutually an- 

 tithetical, if not mutually exclusive. The second occupies middle 

 ground. Together they are here set down in the order of their apparent 

 early development and in the order of their popularly esteemed im- 

 portance during all historic time previous to, if not including, this 

 first year of the twentieth century. 



No summary view of the progress of science, it seems to me, can be 

 made intelligible except by a clear realization of these two facts, which 

 may be briefly referred to as man's conception of the universe and his 

 means of investigating it. What, then, in the light of these facts, has 

 been the sequel ? The full answer to this question is an old and a long 

 story, now a matter of minute and exhaustive history as regards the past 

 twenty centuries. I have no desire to recall the dramatic events in- 

 volved in the rise of science from the Alexandrian epoch to the present 

 day. All these events are trite enough to men of science. A mere 

 reference to them is a sufficient suggestion of the existence of a family 

 skeleton. But, setting aside the human element as much as possible, 

 it may not be out of place or time to state what general conclusions ap- 

 pear to stand out plainly in that sequel. These are our tangible heri- 

 tage and ^^pon them we should fix our attention. 



In the first place, the progress of science has been steadily opposed 

 to, and as steadily opposed by, the adherents of man's primitive con- 

 cepts of the universe. The domain of the natural has constantly 

 widened and the domain of the supernatural has constantly narrowed. 

 So far, at any rate, as evil spirits are concerned, they have been com- 

 pletely cast out from the realm of science. The arch fiend and the 

 lesser princes of darkness are no longer useful even as an hypothesis. 

 We have reached — if I may again use the cautious language of diplo- 

 macy — a satisfactory modus vivendi if we have not attained permanent 

 peace in all our foreign relations. Enlightened man has come to see 

 that his highest duty is to cooperate with Nature, that he may expect 

 to get on very well if he heeds her advice, and that he may expect to 

 fare very ill if he disregards it. 



Secondly, it appears to have been demonstrated that neither the a 



