2 AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



."often it carries but little information to those who have 

 .not already a considerable acquaintance with the subject. 



Science is a synonym of knowledge ; but a synonym 

 which cannot be dispensed with, for it implies knowledge 

 of a particular kind. It implies not only an acquaintance 

 with phenomena, but a further knowledge of their simi- 

 larity and dissimilarity. It implies a sense of relation and 

 proportion among facts. ''The professor's head is simply 

 packed with facts ! " ''Yes," was the quiet rejoinder, "and 

 they are all of exactly the same size." Science is knowledge 

 in perspective. It is knowledge viewed down the vista of 

 time : not an aggregation of facts presented simultaneously 

 to the intellect, but a sequence of facts successively ascer- 

 tained and placed in proper relation with all that was 

 previously known. Science, therefore, connotes not an 

 acquaintance with facts merely, but also the habit of drawing 

 inferences, the mental training which enables the observer 

 to link data together, and thus to make them fruitful as 

 materials of thought. 



Instead of seeking for a pithy expression, which at the 

 end of our study will sum up its purpose and by denning 

 the word "science" remind us of its scope, we recognize 

 that the word ' ' science ' ' suggests to our minds the pro- 

 gressive accretion of knowledge in the past and the prospect 

 of an expansion in the future, to which no limits can be put. 

 For the student of science sets out upon his quest with the 

 intention not of knowing only, but of understanding what 

 he knows. He is not content with describing the form of 

 an animal, the appearances presented during and after a 

 chemical reaction, the sequence of events which together 

 make up a physiological process ; but he asks himself, Why 

 this form and no other? What is the cause of the changes 

 in this mixture? To what need of the organism does this 

 physiological process respond, and by what agents is it 

 brought about ? The questions ' ' What ? ' ' and ' ' How ? ' ' 

 always lead up to the question " Why ? " Science is learning 



