SCIENCE AMONG THE CHINESE 25 



years " sat still," and so robbed themselves of the glory that might have 

 been theirs ! 



7. The Defect. — It may be admitted that Chinese philosophers 

 entertained some general ideas concerning an all-pervading medium, 

 that they assumed an original unity of matter in all their cosmological 

 speculations, that they had clear ideas on mechanical action and 

 reaction, and very crude ones concerning the transformations of energy, 

 which vaguely suggest those held to-day by the foremost investigators. 

 But we see no just grounds for believing that they, or the Greeks, either, 

 held any ideas comparable with the modern doctrines of vortex motion 

 in the ether, of the conservation of energy, or of biological or cosmo- 

 logical evolution, for it does not seem to us that in the case of either the 

 Greeks or the Chinese should their vague guesses be regarded as true 

 anticipation of modern science. The method of modern science is its 

 distinguishing characteristic, and this was almost completely lacking 

 among the Chinese, and to a less extent among the Greeks also. There 

 is a vast chasm between rampant imagination and scientific imagina- 

 tion, starting with observed facts and following paths that lead to re- 

 sults which can be directly or indirectly verified. 



It is not enough to find in an ancient writer a few or even a consid- 

 erable number of sentences seemingly anticipatory of modern thought. 

 Nor must we neglect the hundreds of other ideas embodied in the con- 

 text which distinctly are not in accord with modern science. We must 

 observe the scope and design of the writer ; inquire into his full aim and 

 end in that book, or section, or paragraph, which will help to explain 

 particular sentences. In particular propositions the sense of an author 

 may sometimes be known by the inference which he draws from them 

 himself; and all those meanings must be excluded from our interpreta- 

 tion of what was in his mind, which will not allow of that inference. 

 Yet even in them we must take heed, lest we mistake an alliision for an 

 inference, which is often introduced in almost the same manner. We 

 must carefully guard against " reading into " an ancient writing the 

 modern connotation of the term employed centuries ago, and that too 

 as translated by means of a very dissimilar language in its present-day 

 equivalents. 



Too often these Chinese philosophers (as did the Greeks) assumed 

 innate tendency as the basis of their crude and vague speculations. 

 But innate tendencies are not looked upon with as much favor in the 

 philosophy of to-day as in that of past ages, and suggestions so inca- 

 pable of verification have little or no value as scientific hypotheses. 



However interesting and worthy of notice the results of this guess- 

 work may be as representing the philosophical creed of China, they are 

 in the present connection simply a mass of cosmological conjectures into 

 the details of which it would be unprofitable to follow. 



