6 THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 



reverence for the mighty minds of old, and a keen 

 appreciation of the importance to our profession of 

 a study of history, may be put in the scales against 

 defects as to the appreciation of which I have still 

 remaining sufficient self-detachment. The lesson of the 

 day is the lesson of their lives. But because of the 

 ever-increasing mental strain in this age of hurry, few 

 of us have the leisure, fewer still, I fear, the inclination, 

 to read it thoroughly. Only with a knowledge of the 

 persistency with which they waged the battle for Truth, 

 and the greatness of their victory, does the memory of 

 the illustrious dead become duly precious to us. 



History is simply the biography of the mind of man ; 

 and our interest in history, and its educational value to 

 us, is directly proportionate to the completeness of our 

 study of the individuals through whom this mind has 

 been manifested. To understand clearly our position in 

 any science to-day, we must go back to its beginnings, 

 and trace its gradual development, following certain 

 laws, difficult to interpret and often obscured in the 

 brilliancy of achievements laws which everywhere 

 illustrate this biography, this human endeavour, working 

 through the long ages ; and particularly is this the case 

 with that history of the organized experience of the 

 race which we call science. 



In the first place, like a living organism, Truth grows, 

 and its gradual evolution may be traced from the tiny 

 germ to the mature product. Never springing, Minerva- 

 like, to full stature at once, Truth may suffer all the 

 hazards incident to generation and gestation. Much of 

 history is a record of the mishaps of truths which have 

 struggled to the birth, only to die or else to wither in 

 premature decay. Or the germ may be dormant for 

 centuries, awaiting the fullness of time. 



