THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY THE SCOPE AND METHOD OF 



SCIENCE 



§ I. — TJie Need of the Present 



Within the past forty years so revolutionary a change 

 has taken place in our appreciation of the essential facts 

 in the growth of human society, that it has become 

 necessary not only to rewrite history, but to profoundly 

 modify our theory of life and gradually, but none the less 

 certainly, to adapt our conduct to the novel theory. The 

 insight which the investigations of Darwin, seconded by 

 the suggestive but far less permanent work of Spencer,^ 

 have given us into the development of both individual and 

 social life, has compelled us to remodel our historical ideas 

 and is slowly widening and consolidating our moral 

 standards. This slowness ought not to dishearten us, for 

 one of the strongest factors of social stability is the inert- 

 ness, nay, rather active hostility, with which human 

 societies receive all new ideas. It is the crucible in which 

 the dross is separated from the genuine metal, and which 

 saves the body-social from a succession of unprofitable 

 and possibly injurious experimental variations. That the 

 reformer should often be also the martyr is, perhaps, a not 

 over-great price to pay for the caution with which society 

 as a whole must move ; it may require years to replace a 

 great leader of men, but a stable and efficient society can 

 only be the outcome of centuries of development. 



