16 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



the truthfulness of nature; which is far more 

 imperious, far more exacting than that which 

 man sometimes calls truthfulness. 



"In the second place, he must be alert of mind. 

 Nature is ever making signs to us, she is ever 

 whispering to us the beginnings of her secrets; 

 the scientific man must be ever on the watch, 

 ready at once to lay hold of Nature's hint, how- 

 ever small, to listen to her whisper, however 

 low. 



"In the third place, scientific inquiry, though 

 it be pre-eminently an intellectual effort, has 

 need of the moral quality of courage not so much 

 the courage which helps a man to face a sudden 

 difficulty as the courage of steadfast endurance." 



Anticipating the obvious criticism that these 

 three qualities of truthfulness, alertness, and 

 courage are not in any way peculiar to the scien- 

 tific man, but "may be recognized as belonging to 

 almost every one who has commanded or deserved 

 success, whatever may have been his walk in life," 

 Sir Michael said: "That is exactly what I would 

 desire to insist, that the men of science have no 

 peculiar virtues, no special powers. They are 

 ordinary men, their characters are common, even 

 commonplace. Science, as Huxley said, is or- 

 ganized common-sense, and men of science are 

 common men, drilled in the ways of common- 

 sense." 



