Science in Public Affairs 



and the social order he finds two processes, the 

 one consisting of rhythmic repetition, undulatory, 

 generative, imitative in the several departments 

 of nature ; the other consisting of adaptation or 

 ordered variation, as in chemical combination, 

 biotic fecundation, or in conscious invention. 

 Without discussing the ultimate or universal appli- 

 cation of M. Tarde's antithesis, or the question how 

 far he elevates analogy into a case of common law, 

 we can hardly fail to recognise the importance of 

 the distinction in relation to the services rendered 

 by science to industry. 



The greater part of the machine-economy upon 

 which we have dwelt as the typical contribution 

 of modern science ranks as imitation. This is 

 true not merely in the sense that the function of 

 industrial machinery, and in general of scientific 

 method as applied to industry, is to secure an exact 

 numerous repetition of a single movement or set 

 of movements. It is true in a wider sense. There 

 is exact repetition not only in the action of a 

 machine, but also in the manner in which the 

 idea and use of the machine spread throughout an 

 industry : the idea which first finds embodiment 

 in a single model machine spreads by an imitative 

 action through the entire industrial society, and 

 with this process of expansion comes the fuller social 

 realisation of the new economy. The rapidity and 

 accuracy with which a new machine or method 

 permeates industrial society, by this undulatory or 

 imitative movement, are of course prime conditions 

 of the fullest service which science can render to 



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