METHODS OF SCIENCE; NUMBERS 5 



wondering whether a creature with only one 

 third or one fourth of the harmonious number 

 of legs could possess real intelligence. 



Human beings cannot be persuaded to regard 

 themselves as mere natural phenomena. It is an 

 alluring thought that the true, the beautiful 

 and the good are merely embodiments of a sin- 

 gle idea, but it is a thought which makes little 

 appeal to a man with an ulcerated tooth. We 

 go on nailing up the scaffolding of our joint 

 temple to Goodness, Beauty and Truth until a 

 hammer hits our own thumb, and our enthusi- 

 asm for this kind of architecture rapidly wanes. 

 If, then, by common consent we agree to seg- 

 regate the natural from the social sciences it 

 is because stars and electrons and chromosomes 

 do not bring us so near to the quick of human 

 feeling as religion and society and man. 



The methods of natural science are not 

 unique. If we ask how long ago the great group 

 of Indo-European languages were only local 

 dialects of neighboring tribes, or how long ago 

 some fossil was embedded in a sedimentary rock, 

 the two problems present the same kind of diffi- 

 culty. In both cases we recognize that there have 

 been periods of rapid accretion or rapid erosion, 

 and other periods of stagnancy, but by observ- 



