160 WHAT IS SCIENCE? 



on the ground of the work of Faraday or Pasteur, that 

 science should receive large endowments and a great 

 share in government, often urge at the same time that 

 Faraday and Pasteur were examples of that genius 

 which cannot be produced by training and can scarcely 

 be stunted by adversity. If it were only these exceptional 

 achievements, occurring two or three times a century, 

 which had practical value, the encouragement of science 

 would be an unprofitable gamble. If we are really to 

 convince the outside world of the need for the closer 

 application of science to practical affairs, we must give 

 reasons for our claim much more carefully and guardedly 

 than has been the custom up to the present. Nothing 

 is more fatal to our cause than to encourage expectations 

 doomed to disappointment. 



Accordingly in this chapter, I propose to diverge 

 entirely from the usual path. I shall not give a single 

 example of practical science. There are plenty of good 

 books which tell what science has achieved in the past, 

 and plenty of newspaper paragraphs to tell us what it 

 is going to achieve in the future. Here I want to inquire 

 carefully what value science might have for practical 

 life, why it has that value, and under what conditions 

 its value is most likely to be realized. 



THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



It will be well to point out immediately that science, 

 like everything else, has its limitations, and that there are 

 some practical problems which, from its very nature, it 

 is debarred from solving. It must never be forgotten 

 that, though science helps us in controlling the external 

 world, it does not give us the smallest indication in what 

 direction that control should be exercised. Whenever we 

 undertake any practical action, we have two decisions to 

 make ; we have to decide what is the end of our action, 



