2 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:1— Jan., 1916 



merely prove a case, or from that of the preacher who must support 

 a dogma, or from that of the politician who must defend a party. 



Science cannot be dogmatic if it is science; it cannot be partisan 

 if its judgment is that of the open mind, seeking. Our policies 

 are largely controlled by the partisan, and by the publicist who 

 endeavors to support his argument. Science is not argumenta- 

 tive: the whole statement of its case is merely the statement of 

 the fact and its significance. There is no taking of sides to 

 truth. The prejudiced mind — the mind that prejudges — is 

 never the scientific mind. Therefore, does the science-spirit 

 introduce a modern element into society; and in the end it will 

 reshape our political philosophy. 



A few weeks ago a great meeting was held to discuss a difficult 

 public situation, involving disease. There were violent opinions 

 and strong parties for and against. One man read a paper giving 

 the facts, without argument. The facts, not the arguments 

 or the heated debates, determine the procedure. No species of 

 argument can influence a micro-organism. 



So accustomed are we to partisan opinions and to subjective 

 "beliefs" that the plain statement of facts may fail to hold our 

 attention. They do not have sufficient color, or power of enter- 

 tainment to elicit applause, and we say that the reciter of them 

 is impractical, which is the heaviest epithet that we can hurl at 

 a man in a commercial epoch. 



Never have we arrived at mastery and never do we discover 

 the greatest intellectual delights until plain facts, ungarnished, 

 standing for themselves, are poetry and painting and inspiration. 

 Nothing is so beautiful or abides so long as the truths of facts; 

 and keen is the joy when we partake in the discovery of them. 

 To read with relish a clear statement of the plants that grow in a 

 field, of the birds that breed in a wood, of the rocks that lie on a 

 hillside, is a rare and choice satisfaction and one that we love to 

 share with every friend. 



In the truth there is no secrecy, no deals, no combinations, 

 no conspiracy, no favor, no courtesy to high opinion. Whether 

 there will be an eclipse does not depend on discussion nor even 

 on agreements of any number of persons. Whether a species 

 migrates in twos or in tens does not depend on what somebody 

 "believes." Whether the summer is wet or the winter is cold 

 does not depend on the will of the king or the kaiser. 



