594 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



sense it was the same as that of the traditionahsts who 

 opposed him. In another sense it was different. His selective 

 mind saw things that they did not see. Also, he read what 

 they did not read and pondered the things he read in ways 

 to which they were not accustomed. In short, Gahleo was 

 not simply a product of his environment. He was a selective 

 mind which in large measure shaped its own environment. 



This, it seems to me, is the first fundamental factor. Back 

 of all these three centuries of brilliant transformation stands 

 a mind looking out independently at its world. 



But there was a second important factor. Galileo's mind 

 was associated with other minds. First there was his associa- 

 tion with minds that had gone before, the minds kept 

 alive on the printed page. In the second place there was the 

 association with contemporary minds of like interest and 

 similar intelligence. Out of this association there arose that 

 mutual give and take of ideas, that checking up, that recog- 

 nition of unity in diversity which seems to be essential to all 

 effective thinking. 



Then there came a third stage. Those who were fired by 

 the same interests came to the laboratories of Galileo and 

 the other masters to watch them work and to work with 

 them. Also there grew up the need for new modes of scientific 

 communication. Where formerly the few masters could 

 write personal letters to one another, accounts of experiments 

 now began to be printed and exchanged among the investiga- 

 tors. The scientific Journal was born. Books were printed for 

 those who were expert in the field. 



Generations passed while these things were taking place. 

 Galileo and the first masters died, and others followed. 

 Then came the fourth stage. Research began to be widespread, 

 workshops of investigation were accepted as essential for 

 truth-seeking, journals and books were widely issued. 

 Discoveries followed discoveries. Above all, practical use 

 was made of the discoveries. Whereat we enter the fourth 

 stage — of teaching the results to the non-expert. The school 

 master conveyed the scientific information to his pupils. 

 Books and journals were written now not for expert alone, 

 but for the non-expert, e.g. the children in the schools, the 

 youth in the colleges, and for the older folk. What, in short. 



