PjREFACE. 



The educated and inquiring public of the present 

 day addresses to the experts who have speciah'zed 

 in every imaginable subject the question that was 

 asked in olden times of Euclid by King Ptolemy 

 Philadelphus, Protector of Letters. Recoiling in 

 dismay from the difficulties presented by the study 

 of mathematics and annoyed at his slow progress, he 

 inquired of the celebrated geometer if there was 

 not some royal road, could he not learn geometry 

 more easily than by studying the Elements. The 

 learned Greek replied, " There is no royal road." 

 These royal roads making every branch of science 

 accessible to the cultivated mind did not exist in 

 the days of Ptolemy and Euclid. But they do 

 exist to-day. These roads form what we call 

 Scientific Philosophy, 



Scientific philosophy opens a path through the 

 hitherto inextricable medley of natural phenomena. 

 It throws light on facts, it lays bare principles, it 

 replaces contingent details by essential facts. And 

 thus it makes science accessible and communicable. 

 Intellectually it performs a very lofty function. 



There is virtually a philosophy of every science, 

 v 



