8 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



but it is safe to say that man's relations with 

 Nature were for a long time predominantly 

 practical. We may recall the vivid picture which 

 ^Eschylus gives of primitive men living in caves, 

 without fire, without wood-work, without sys- 

 tem, without seasons, without foresight, a dream- 

 life without science: 



"And let me tell you, not as taunting men, 

 But teaching you the intention of my gifts 

 How, first, beholding they beheld in vain, 

 And, hearing, heard not, but like shapes in 



dreams, 

 Mixed all things wildly down the tedious 



time, 



Nor knew to build a house against the sun 

 With wicketed sides, nor any wood-work knew 

 But lived like silly ants, beneath the ground, 

 In hollow caves unsunned. There came to 



them 



No steadfast sign of winter, nor of spring 

 Flower-perfumed, nor of summer full of fruit, 

 But blindly and lawlessly they did all things, 

 Until I taught them how the stars do rise 

 And set in mystery, and devised for them 

 Number, the inducer of philosophies, 

 The synthesis of letters, and besides 

 The artificer of all things, Memory 

 That sweet muse-mother." 



