MCGEE 



by some inference, and no inference completely dissevered from 

 observation and generalization — indeed, generalization is little 

 more than spontaneous expansion of simple observation, and 

 inference little else than normal extension of generalization 

 through the aid of memory. The source of scientific knowl- 

 edge is experience, though some part of the experience maybe 

 indirect, /. ^., that of other individuals and generations com- 

 municated in ways implying measurable similarity in experi- 

 ence. The methods of acquisition are shared not only by 

 the several sciences but by all other lines of knowledge ; yet 

 the proportion of intuitive (or unconsciously integrated) experi- 

 ence called deductive knowledge decreases, while the ratio of 

 consciously organized experience called inductive knowledge 

 increases from pre-science to Science, and from branch to 

 branch of the special sciences — Astronom}', Chemistr}^ Ph3'sics, 

 Phytology, Zoology, Geology, Anthropology — in about the 

 order of their historical development. 



It is in the methods of organizing knowledge that Science 

 attains its most distinctive aspect ; and these methods are re- 

 ducible to a few simple formulas, of which the greater part are 

 expressed in phrases made familiar by long use in scientific 

 speech and literature. Each of these formulas sums a vast 

 body of experience, each was contributed b}^ one or more of the 

 family of sciences, and all are sustained jointly by the several 

 special sciences ; and since the}^ are not shared b}^ other branches 

 of knowledge, they may be fairly held to represent the Cardi- 

 nal Principles of Science. 



The origin of Science can be scried but dimly amid the 

 shadows of antiquity, yet enough of the earliest traces may be 

 caught to show that organized knowledge began with counting 

 and grew into mathematics ; there are, indeed, unmistakable in- 

 dications that primitive numbers were largely mystical or alma- 

 cabalic' ; but the indications are equally clear that the counting 

 whence the number-systems sprang expressed at least partly 

 conscious recognition of the veritable existence and persistence 



' As described in ' The Beginning of Mathematics,' American Anthropologist, 

 New Series, Vol. I, 1S99, pp. 646-674, 



