THE AIM OF SCIENCE 55 



a science is not its subject-matter, but its point 

 of view, the particular kind of question it 

 asks. The lark singing at heaven's gate is a 

 fact of experience which may be studied phy- 

 sically, biologically, and psychologically, but 

 a complete answer to the questions asked by 

 Physics would not answer those asked by Biol- 

 ogy, still less those asked by Psychology. 



THE EVOLUTIONARY AIM. The end of Science 

 is not reached in the formulation of things as 

 they are, it has also an historical or evolution- 

 ary aim. In every department of knowledge 

 the question we are continually asking is "How 

 have these things come to be? " The solar system 

 is traced back to a vast nebula. 



"The solid earth on which we tread 

 In tracts of fluent heat began." 



There are hints of inorganic evolution, one kind 

 of matter giving rise to another, as Uranium 

 to Radium. There is a history if not a sermon 

 in every stone. And when we come to organ- 

 isms we find evolution in the stricter sense, race 

 giving rise to race by processes of slow trans- 

 formation still very imperfectly understood. The 

 conception extends to language and literature, to 

 art and institutions, to everything. It is in this 

 genetic view of Nature and of Man that Science 

 completes itself, and joins hands with Philosophy. 



