SCIENCE AMONG THE CHINESE 27 



earth's crust ; and in biology as to the evolutionary development of life. 



4. The unity of the universe, (a) The doctrine of the conservation 

 of energy as based upon quantitative investigation of energy transfor- 

 mations and the exact determination of equivalence factors. (&) The 

 doctrine of evolution as based on a wealth of observation in astronomy, 

 geology, biology, psychology, and the ethical and religious development 

 of man. (c) The suggested unity of matter resulting from recent 

 investigations of discharge of electricity through gases and the prop- 

 erties of radioactive substances. 



On the other hand, let us glance at 



Some of the Salient Features op the Chinese Conception of 

 THE Universe. — ^A. As to Method. 



1. Absence of the inductive method; prevalence of a priori deduc- 

 tion from preconceived fantastic notions. Illustrations accepted as 

 proof. Supposed analogy given highest weight. 



2. Spirit of inaccuracy; in common affairs predominant; in system 

 of weights and measures, where most needed for scientific progress, it 

 almost defies description. 



3. Lack of mathematical knowledge or method. 



In the mere statement of these three characteristics we see at once 

 three causes, or at least three related phases, of the general backward- 

 ness of the Chinese in science, which sum up to " no method." Let us 

 examine each of these sub-heads a little more in detail. 



1. Alsence of the Inductive Method. — Chinese philosophers entered 

 upon the task of physical speculation in a manner which showed the 

 vigor and confidence of the questioning spirit, but no appreciation of 

 the slow and patient process by which answers to nature's riddles are 

 secured. They tried to discover the origin and principle of the universe 

 rather by vague suggestions and casual analogies than by any course of 

 reasoning that would bear examination. The first students wished, as 

 do many to-day, to divine at a single glance or guess the whole import 

 of nature's great book. 



Western teachers of Chinese students are constantly impressed with 

 their readiness to argue by illustration and to accept a single illustration 

 as proof ; not that they consider that a single exception to a rule invali- 

 dates its generality, but that from a single case a general law can be 

 deduced. This is well shown by the following reply which was made by 

 a college freshman in his geometry examination to the question : " What 

 is a locus ?" the class having spent a due proportion of the term on loci 

 problems. He was by no means an unskillful logician from the 

 Chinese point of view, though he may have lacked geometrical percep- 

 tion, when he answered " A locus is a straight line all the points of 

 which are equally distant from the two sides." For he was simply 



