FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS 539 



ery of true connections, but more often some small detail which the 

 ordinary person passes by unheeding. For instance, take the case of 

 Becquerel when examining a definite point suggested by the discov- 

 ery of the Rontgen rays. At that time it was thought that the phos- 

 phorescence produced in a vacuum tube was in some way connected 

 with the excitation of X-rays. Becquerel, therefore, examined bodies 

 which were phosphorescent under ordinary light, to determine if 

 they gave out rays of a similar character. On a certain dull day he 

 happened to leave a photographic plate exposed over uranium, and 

 to his surprise he found that a marked photographic impression was 

 produced. Knowing that the phosphorescent light from the uranium 

 compound persists for only a short time, he was able to draw con- 

 clusions which proved to be the commencement of the now great and 

 important investigation into radio-activity. 



Observation, as commonly used, seems to mean to see with atten- 

 tion. It therefore involves concentration, or the focusing of the 

 whole force of the mind on one point for an appreciable moment of 

 time. As soon as concentration takes place, a process of analysis 

 begins, and we pass through the perception of likeness and difference 

 to classification and then to generalization, by which we fit observed 

 facts into their proper places in the scheme of nature, gathering up 

 the new with the old into a larger and larger synthesis. Memory now 

 comes into play to retain what we have gained; and a new impulse 

 to gather new facts, as well as, sometimes, a fresh point of view, we 

 gain from the contact of the new with the old and the arousing of the 

 power of deduction. 



Further, we must not overlook what is really a fact of the utmost 

 importance that the cultivation of observation by the sense of 

 touch and the use' of the hand as an instrument, together with the 

 possibility of making experiments which must be carried out by the 

 hand, have led to what might be called a discovery, namely, that the 

 training of the hand actually stimulates the brain centres. This has 

 given to manual training its true value. 



By this process, in the first place, of studying the laws of nature, 

 either as they are presented to us in the natural course of events, or 

 as we may induce them to display themselves before us in experi- 

 ments; and, secondly, by studying them with all possible reference 

 to the laws of the mind, including those of the interaction of the hand 

 and the brain, we attain to that knowledge of our environment and 

 to that plane of capacity in ourselves which are necessary prelimi- 

 naries to the bringing of the powers of nature under our control in the 

 interests of humanity. 



What is the indispensable step which often intervenes, which, un- 

 taken, makes it still necessary that we should call so much of our 

 knowledge by the name of pure science? For how many centuries had 



