An Introduction to a Biology 



My thesis is that this force is the same as that which 

 lies behind poetic utterance of every kind, whether it reach 

 us through the eye or the ear. The masterpieces of art and 

 of science are both due to the irrepressible need for the 

 thing for which there is no better word than self-expression. 

 The heroes of science, as well as of art, have always ex- 

 pressed themselves by prodigious performances in the 

 imaginative sphere. " But surely," you may mterrupt me, 

 " Darwin's work was great because it discovered the truth 

 about evolution." Well, that is not my view ; I do not 

 think he did discover the truth about evolution ; he per- 

 suaded people to believe that evolution had taken place — 

 a prodigious feat. The great in science are not those who 

 discover new facts, but those who imagine things about 

 the facts discovered by others. This imagining of things 

 about facts is called detecting the principles underlying the 

 facts ; but it is nothing of the kind, because there aren't 

 any principles underlying them — and don't you forget it.i 



I am not now offering any opinion as to the desirability 

 of imagining things about facts ; I am merely stating that 

 the great in science are those who have produced great 

 imaginative works, and not those who discover. Has any- 

 one here not heard of Darwin ? How many of you have 

 heard of Giesbrecht ? If you have heard the name of 

 Rothschild, it is not because a member of that family has 

 a world-wide reputation as an authority on fleas. . . . 



You will gather that my theory is that science pro- 

 vides an opportmiity for exercise in the imaginative sphere 

 just as music or painting does. There is one side of the 

 human soul which needs to express itself by creative work 

 of some kind ; this may either be done through the medium 

 of those forms of art which appeal to one through the eye, 

 or those which appeal through the ear. I can perhaps give 

 you an idea of the general character of these poetic, i.e. 

 creative utterances by showing you the attempts which I 

 made, at the age of about eight, at creative utterance. I 



I lO 



