6 AN INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



their functions, whether the induction result from passive 

 observation or from experiment from observation of phe- 

 nomena under conditions which Nature has arranged, or 

 from observations made under conditions arranged by the 

 experimenter's art. Science asks first, "What is it?" next, 

 "How does it act?" then, "Why does it act in this way 

 rather than in some other way?" And, be it understood, 

 this question "Why?" is asked with a view to eliciting as 

 answer either that certain forces determine a change in the 

 molecular constitution of the substance, or that the action 

 serves the organism in such or such a w r ay. Science never 

 seeks to determine the relative value of phenomena in the 

 scheme of the universe in the Cosmos, as our intelligence 

 figures it. Still less does science venture to suppose that 

 she can throw light into the world above the world, the All- 

 intelligent, of which our intelligence is but a dependence. 

 The expression "The contest between Religion and Sci- 

 ence" is an absurdity; there can be no contest in which 

 one of the combatants is absolutely passive. With the 

 struggle between what is true and what false in the expres- 

 sion of religion, in dogmatic theology, science has no con- 

 cern ; but this is a subject upon which we shall have a few 

 words to add later on. 



The aim of science is to know Nature, and to know for 

 the sake of knowing. As has often been said of art, that it 

 ceases to be art as soon as it is conscious of a moral pur- 

 pose, so may it be said of science that when the student sets 

 before himself a utilitarian object he runs the risk of preju- 

 dicing his conclusions. It is, of course, only in a limited 

 sense that this is true. Great advances have been made 

 by investigators whose object was wholly technical. Yet, 

 if the history of science were written, it would be found that 

 the first step in advance, the germ of the discover}' which 

 developed and became fruitful in the hands of the practical 

 chemist, the mechanician, the pathologist, was discovered 

 by the investigator for whom science lost its interest as soon 



