17G THE GKOWTH OF SCIENCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



the advance of science is so imposing as to be obvnoiis to everyone, and 

 the praises of this aspect of science are to be found in the mouths of 

 all. Bevond all doubt science has greatl}^ lessened and has markedly 

 narrowed hardship and suffering; beyond all doubt science has largely 

 increased and has widely diffused ease and comfort. The appliances 

 of science have, as it were, covered with a soft cushion the rough places 

 of life, and that not for the rich only, but also for the poor. So abun- 

 dant and so prominent are the material benefits of science that in the 

 eyes of many these seem to be the onh' benefits which she brings. She 

 is often spoken of as if she were useful and nothing more, as if her 

 work were only to administer to the material wants of man. 



Is this so ( 



We may begin to doubt it when we reflect that the triumphs of 

 science which bring these material advantages are in their ver}' nature 

 intellectual triumphs. The increasing benefits brought by science are 

 the results of man's increasing mastery over nature, and that mastery 

 is increasingly a mastery of mind; it is an increasing power to use the 

 forces of what we call inanimate nature in i)lace of the foive of his 

 own or other creatures' bodies; it is an increasing use of mind in place 

 of nuiscle. 



Is it to be thought that that which has l)rought the mind so greatly 

 into play has had no effect on the mind itself^ Is that part of the 

 mind which works (nit scientific truths a mere slavish machine, pro- 

 ducing results it knows not how, having no part in the good which in 

 its workings it brings forth i 



What are the qualities, the features, of that scientific mind which 

 has wrought, and is working, such great changes in man's relation to 

 nature^ In seeking an answer to this question we have not to inquire 

 into the attri])utes of genius. Though much of the progress of science 

 seems to take on the form of a series of great steps, each made by 

 some great man, the distinction in science between the great discoverer 

 and the hum])le worker is one of degree only, not of kind. As I was 

 urging just now, the greatness of many great names in science is often, 

 in large part, the greatness of occasion, not of absolute power. The 

 qualities which guide one man to a small truth silently taking its place 

 among its fellows, as these go to make up progress, are at bottom the 

 same as those by which another man is led to something of which the 

 whole world rings. 



The features of the fruitful scientific mind are in the main three. 



In the first place, above all other things, his nature must.be one 

 which vibrates in unison with that of which he is in search; the seeker 

 after truth must himself be truthful, truthful with the truthfulness of 

 nature. For the truthfulness of nature is not wholly the same as that 

 which man sometimes calls truthfulness. It is far more imperious, far 

 more exacting. Man, unscientific man, is often content with "the 



