INTRODUCTION 3 



Science, therefore, has become the touchstone of the 

 man in the street — his watchword of all that will bring 

 him not only the comforts of life, but the satisfaction of 

 absolute certainty as to how to obtain happiness. How 

 far from the truth such an idea happens to be, we all 

 know, for happiness is a matter of the spirit, and has 

 little if anything to do with wealth, position, power, learn- 

 ing, or science. But we must never forget that an idea 

 once held is just as powerful as a driving force, whether it 

 is true or not. Science is the lone magic word to the 

 average man; and when experiment after experiment is 

 presented to show that always, under the same conditions, 

 identical results are obtained, he is impressed. He under- 

 stands that it must be so, even if he cannot understand 

 its use nor to what the various interpretations given these 

 findings may ultimately lead. 



If he cannot understand this simple language of experi- 

 ment and observation, he is excluded from the field of 

 human understanding. 



Science aims to control nature, and to prophesy the 

 event or events that will follow on the performance of a 

 very definite act or a combination of acts. 



I like that definition of science best which calls it the 

 "checking up and getting rid of one's prepossessions." 



It is often said that men formerly took all their facts 

 from authority, but that now they have attained such 

 mental heights that they seek facts only at first hand. 

 While it may be admitted that many facts were taken 



