Modern Science : A Criticism 



arising in the first place out of ignorance, and only 

 tenable as long as further observation is limited 

 or wilfully ignored. 



This then is the Method of Science. It con- 

 sists in forming a law or statement by only looking 

 at a small portion of the facts ; then, when the 

 other facts come in, the law or statement gradually 

 fades away again. Conrad Gessner and other 

 early zoologists began by classifying animals accord- 

 ing to the number of their horns ! Political 

 Economy begins by classifying social action under 

 a law of Supply and Demand. When people be- 

 lieved that the earth was flat, they generalised the 

 facts connected with the fall of heavy bodies into 

 a conception of " up and down." These were 

 two opposite directions in space. Heavy bodies 

 took the " downward " ; it was their nature. But 

 in time, and as fresh facts came in, it became 

 impossible to group animals any longer by their 

 horns ; " up and down " ceased to have a meaning 

 when it was known that the earth was round. Then 

 fresh laws and statements had to be formed. 

 In the last-mentioned case — it being conceived 

 that the earth was the centre of the universe — the 

 new law supposed was that all heavy bodies tended 

 to the centre of the earth as such. This was all 

 right and satisfactory for a while ; but presently 

 it appeared that the earth was not the centre of the 

 universe, and that some heavy bodies — such as 

 the satellities of Jupiter — did not in fact tend 

 to the centre of the earth at all. Another lump 

 of ignorance (which had enabled the old generalisa- 



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