A Rational and Humane Science 



himself, to which I accord the fullest credit and 

 honour. 



And yet, during the time spoken of, it kept 

 growing on me : first, that the attempt was an 

 impossible one ; secondly, that the Science so-called 

 was not a true Science ; and thirdly, that in its 

 pretence to an intellectual exactitude which it 

 did not really possess, this Modern Science was 

 leading to a narrow-mindedness and a dogmatism 

 as bad as the old. 



There is in fact (so I think) a fallacy in the attempt. 

 But how shall I describe it ? Our relations to 

 the world may, quite roughly speaking, be divided 

 into three groups — those that are sensuous and 

 perceptional, those that are purely intellectual, 

 and those that are of an emotional and moral order. 

 Take any object of Nature — a bird, for instance. 

 We may look upon the bird as an object of sense- 

 perceptions — its form, its colour, its song, and 

 so forth. Some people attain to extraordinary 

 skill and quickness in this department, recognising 

 in a moment the note or even the flight of a songster. 

 Then again we may look upon the bird from the 

 intellectual side — we may study it in relation to 

 its surroundings — the form of its wings, the length 

 of its leg, the character of its beak, and their adap- 

 tation to its habits, to its locality, to its food, and 

 so forth. Thus we may get a whole series of 

 purely intellectual results — relations of the bird 

 to the world in which it lives. This is the special 

 field of the present-day Science. But, again, we 

 may regard the bird in its emotional and moral 



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