236 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



that we shall see these processes again and again as observa- 

 tion is extended. Because the work is done by men who have 

 spent years in study, the methods are by no means those of 

 supermen, but only refinements of everyday work and 

 thought. Here as elsewhere, there is plenty of common 

 agreement and opportunity for verification of the simpler 

 facts. 



Refinement in the technique of analyzing phenomena 

 thus constitutes the sole difference between the scientific 

 and the popular method of drawing conclusions. In ad- 

 justing any mechanical device, one may be exercising a very 

 common kind of sense. But it is a sense which differs from 

 that exhibited by the scientific investigator, only in so far 

 as the facts examined by the investigator are the more com- 

 plicated and can be approached only after extended prepara- 

 tion. The man who builds a concrete sidewalk in his yard 

 learns by experience and experiment, and by thinking things 

 out as he goes. The investigator who is trying to advance 

 our knowledge regarding the chemistry of cement, does 

 essentially the same thing. Only he begins far ahead of the 

 untrained man; and having a broader knowledge, he recog- 

 nizes possibilities of error that the other does not compre- 

 hend. 



The conclusion that we reach is, therefore, that there is 

 nothing really unique in science or in the method of science. 

 Scientists are not wizards, but men who apply to natural 

 phenomena the methods of analysis used by logical minds in 

 the affairs of daily life. The simpler facts of science can be 

 shared by all who possess the training necessary for their 

 apprehension. If the more complex facts are less commonly 

 apprehended it is because they are complex and hence dif- 

 ficult of verification or subject to erroneous interpretation. 

 Moreover, any normal person, who trains himself to ex- 

 amine the phenomena of nature, may be expected to sub- 

 scribe to the common agreements as formulated by well 

 established generalizations. If there is debatable ground 



