PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION vii 



Professor J. J, Thomson allowed the use of 

 a reproduction of Mr Arthur Hacker's admirable 

 painting, which now hangs in the Cavendish 

 Laboratory. 



In spite of the generous help he has received, 

 the author is sadly conscious of the difficulty of 

 his task. Although the development of physical 

 science is one of the most powerful activities of 

 our time, a knowledge of its aims, methods, and 

 results has not yet been recognised as a necessary 

 part of an English liberal education. To give 

 a popular exposition of results, especially when 

 there is an obvious practical application, is easy ; 

 to enable a non-scientific mind to follow and 

 appreciate the methods by which the results are 

 reached is supremely difficult. But in science 

 methods are usually more important than results, 

 while a superficial acquaintance with results with- 

 out an underlying knowledge of method is useless, 

 or worse than useless. 



In the possibility of treating the wider and 

 deeper generalisations of natural science as fit 

 subject-matter for current thought and literature, 

 the writer has a profound belief. Whether the 

 failure to secure such treatment has been due to 

 lack of adequate exposition, or to some radical 

 defect in the training of the nation, is a difficult 

 and grave problem ; but, until the point of view 

 has been altered, it is perhaps hopeless to look 

 for a proper understanding of the scientific spirit 

 and of scientific method even among the more 

 educated portion of the community. For the 

 present, the man of science must perforce occupy 

 a more technical and isolated position than the 

 student of history or the lover of art. From 



