2 The Realm of Nature CHAP. 



A description of the steam-engine which did not refer to 

 Watt and other inventors and give something of their 

 biography would . not be held satisfactory unless some ex- 

 planation of the omission were given, such as the desire to 

 avoid controversy. For the same reason in a general 

 description of Nature it is necessary to insist on the relation 

 of Nature to God, and explain why this relation is not more 

 fully dealt with. 



3. Science is organised and accurate knowledge, and con- 

 sequently its range has no limits ; it is equally necessary in 

 order to understand Nature and the supernatural. Science 

 deals with everything, and its first duty is to classify by 

 observing resemblances and differences. 



4. Comparison and Description. Suppose that we 

 were comparing the tastes of different kinds of fruit in 

 a garden. It is not enough to pluck bunches of red 

 currants, black currants, gooseberries, and raspberries off the 

 bushes and eat them. Each bunch must be classified into 

 berries and leaves or stems ; the former are to be tasted, the 

 latter to be thrown away and thought no more of. Without 

 this precaution the taste of gooseberries might be compared 

 with that of black currant leaves, and different tasters would 

 give irreconcilable reports. When we compare the various 

 things around us, a preliminary classification is quite as 

 much required to ensure that we compare things that are 

 comparable. If we were to take into account mountains, 

 pain, rivers, happiness, air, beauty, and motion, the 

 description would be very confused and puzzling. When 

 several people who have had the same opportunity of seeing, 

 describe an event, the descriptions are almost sure to differ 

 among themselves. This is because a different impression 

 is produced on each mind, and the various subjective 

 sensations of interest, or fear, or pleasure, or surprise, are 

 confused to a greater or less degree with the objective facts. 

 A scientific description should be as free as possible from 

 all subjective colouring ; a mountain must not be described 

 as impressive in its grandeur or beautiful in its colouring, 

 but as of so many feet in height and composed of such and 

 such materials. Nature presents us with so many pheno- 



