EDITOR'S TABLE. 



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EDITOR'S TABLE. 



PURPOSE AND PLAN OF OUR 

 ENTERPRISE. 



THE Popular Science Monthly has 

 been started to help on the work 

 of sound public education, by supplying 

 instructive articles on the leading sub- 

 jects of scientific inquiry. It will con- 

 tain papers, original and selected, on a 

 wide range of subjects, from the ablest 

 scientific men of different countries, ex- 

 plaining their views to non-scientific 

 people. A magazine is needed here, 

 which shall be devoted to this purpose, 

 for, although much is done by the gen- 

 eral press in scattering light articles and 

 shreds of information, yet many scien- 

 tific discussions of merit and moment 

 are passed by. It is, therefore, thought 

 best to bring this class of contributions 

 together for the benefit of all who are 

 interested in the advance of ideas and 

 the diffusion of valuable knowledge. 



The increasing interest in science, 

 in its facts and principles, its practical 

 applications, and its bearings upon opin- 

 ion, is undeniable ; and, with this aug- 

 menting interest, there is growing up a 

 new and enlarged meaning of the term 

 which it is important for us to notice. 

 By science is now meant the most ac- 

 curate knowledge that can be obtained 

 of the order of the universe by which 

 man is surrounded, and of which he is 

 a part. This order was at first per- 

 ceived in simple physical things, and 

 the tracing of it out in these gave origin 

 to the physical sciences. In its earlier 

 development, therefore, science per- 

 tained to certain branches of knowledge, 

 and to many the term science still im- 

 plies physical science. 



But this is an erroneous conception 

 of its real scope. The growth of science 

 involves a widening as well as a pro- 

 gression, The ascertainable order of 

 things proves to be much more exten- 



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sive than was at first suspected; and 

 the inquiry into it has led to sphere 

 after sphere of new investigation, until 

 science is now regarded as not applying 

 to this or that class of objects, but to 

 the whole of Nature as being, in fact, a 

 method of the mind, a quality or charac- 

 ter of knowledge upon all subjects of 

 which we can think or know. 



What some call the progress of 

 science, and others call its encroach- 

 ments, is undoubtedly the great fact 

 of modern thought, and it implies a 

 more critical method of inquiry applied 

 to subjects not before dealt with in so 

 strict a manner. The effect has been, 

 that many subjects, formerly widely 

 separated from the recognized sciences, 

 have been brought nearer to them, and 

 have passed more or less completely 

 under the influence of the scientific 

 method of investigation. Whatever 

 subjects involve accessible and observa- 

 ble phenomena, one causing another, or 

 in any way related to another, belong 

 properly to science for investigation. In- 

 tellect, feeling, human action, language, 

 education, history, morals, religion, law, 

 commerce, and all social relations and 

 activities, answer to this condition ; each 

 has its basis of fact, which is the legit- 

 imate subject-matter of scientific in- 

 quiry. Those, therefore, who consider 

 that observatory-watching, laboratory- 

 work, or the dredging of the sea for 

 specimens to be classified, is all there 

 is to science, make a serious mistake. 

 Science truly means continuous intelli- 

 gent observation of the characters of 

 men, as well as of the characters of 

 insects. It means the analysis of mine 

 as well as that of chemical substances 

 It means the scrutiny of evidence, in re- 

 gard to political theories, as inexorable 

 as that applied to theories of comets. 

 It means the tracing of cause and 

 effect in the sequences of human con- 



