6 The Universe and Life 



and some of these inferences we can test, and discover 

 either that they are true or that they are not true.^ 



As a result of all this, the original chaotic wonder- 

 land becomes to our minds in some degree ordered and 

 simplified. All this is what we call science. Science is 

 man's attempt, in the way I have sketched, to order 

 and formulate his experiences. He is compelled to ac- 

 cept the experiences that come to him, and he must 

 order and formulate them only in ways that accord 

 with critical observation and experimentation ; and in 

 such a manner that the formulations can be tested and 

 verified. It is in the light of the results of this process 

 that we are to try here to sketch a general outlook on 

 the universe. 



To observe, to generalize, to make inferences and 

 to test these inferences — all these, if soundly per- 

 formed, are included in what we may call positive sci- 

 ence, the assured results of scientific inquiry. But in 

 our present enterprise we are venturing beyond these 

 limits. In trying to get a general view of things, we 

 are forced to make some inferences that cannot be 

 tested. So far as we do this, we cannot present the con- 

 clusions we thus reach as positive science, we can 



1 There is a great difficulty with our generalizations in that we do 

 not know how broad to make them ; we do not know how much they 

 cover. The man of science studies a particular phenomenon as rep- 

 resentative of a class ; he hopes that what is true of this will be true 

 of all the class. But what the limits of the class are is not known. 

 Everything differs in some respect from everything else, and we 

 are not certain what consequences may result from the actual di- 

 versities till we have tried them. And to try the consequences of all 

 diversities is not possible. This results in making doubtful or errone- 

 ous many of the general conclusions of science. 



