A RATIONAL AND HUMANE 

 SCIENCE 



IN bringing before you this subject of a 

 Rational and Humane Science you will 

 perhaps forgive me if I dwell for a few 

 moments on some points of personal history in 

 relation to it. After reading mathematics for 

 some four years at Cambridge, it happened to me 

 for the next ten years or so to be engaged in the 

 study of the physical sciences, and in lectures on 

 these subjects. Naturally, during the earlier part 

 of this period I accepted the current methods and 

 conclusions without any question. But as time 

 went on I became aware of a certain dissatisfac- 

 tion ; I felt that many of the laws of Science, 

 enounced as universal truths, were of very limited 

 application only, that many of the conclusions, so 

 strongly insisted on, were of quite doubtful validity ; 

 and at last this increasing dissatisfaction cul- 

 minated in a rather violent attack or criticism of 

 Modern Science which I wrote and published 

 about the year 1884.^ 



' Afterwards reprinted in a modified form, as " Mcdein Scitrce 

 —a Criticism," in the first edition (i?S9) cf the present lock. 



219 



