X THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



At the same time the author is so fully conscious of the 

 ease of criticism and the difficulty of reconstruction, that 

 he has attempted not to stop short at the lighter task. 

 No one who knows the author's views, or who reads, 

 indeed, this book, will believe that he holds the labour 

 of the great scientists or the mission of modern science 

 to be of small account. If the reader finds the opinions 

 of physicists of world-wide reputation, and the current 

 definitions of physical concepts called into question, he 

 must not attribute this to a purely sceptical spirit in the 

 author. He accepts almost without reserve the great 

 results of modern physics ; it is the language in which 

 these results are stated that he believes needs reconsidera- 

 tion. This reconsideration is the more urgent because 

 the language of physics is widely used in all branches 

 of biological (including sociological) science. The 

 obscurity which envelops the principia of science is not 

 only due to an historical evolution influenced by the 

 authority which attaches even to the phraseology used 

 by great discoverers, but to the fact that science, as long 

 as it had to carry on a difficult warfare with metaphysics 

 and dogma, like a skilful general conceived it best to hide 

 its own deficient organisation. There can be small 

 doubt, however, that this deficient organisation will not 

 only in time be perceived by the enemy, but that it has 

 already had a very discouraging influence both on 

 scientific recruits and on intelligent laymen. Anything 

 more hopelessly illogical than the statements with regard 

 to force and matter current in elementary text-books of 

 science, it is difficult to imagine ; and the author, as a 

 result of some ten years' teaching and examining, has 

 been forced to the conclusion that these works possess 

 little, if any, educational value ; they neither encourage 

 the growth of logical clearness nor form any exercise in 

 scientific method. One result of this obscurity we 



