Science of the Future : A Forecast 



presence of phenomena — to enter into a living 

 relation with the blue sky, and the incense-laden 

 air, and the plants and the animals — nay, even 

 with poisonous and hurtful things to have a keener 

 sense of their hurtfulness ? Is it not a strange 

 kind of science, that which wakes the mind to 

 pursue the shadows of things, but dulls the senses 

 to the reality of them — which causes a man to 

 try to bottle the pure atmosphere of heaven and 

 then to shut himself in a gas-reeking, ill-ven- 

 tilated laboratory while he analyses it ; or allows 

 him to vivisect a dog, unconscious that he is 

 blaspheming the pure and holy relation between 

 man and the animals in doing so ? Surely the 

 man of Science (in its higher sense, that is) should 

 be lynx-eyed as an Indian, keen-scented as a 

 hound — with all senses and feelings trained by 

 constant use and a pure and healthy life in close 

 contact with Nature, and with a heart beating in 

 sympathy with every creature. Such a man 

 would have at command, so to speak, the key- 

 board of the universe ; but the mechanical, un- 

 healthy, indoor-living student — is he not really 

 ignorant of the facts ? — Certainly, since he has not 

 felt them, he is. 



The process of the true Science consists first 

 in the naming and defining of phenomena (/.^., 

 the facts of human consciousness), and secondly, 

 in the discovery of the true relation of these 

 phenomena to each other ; and since the defini- 

 tions of phenomena and their relations keep vary- 

 ing with the standpoint of the observer, the process 



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