Science in Public Affairs 



likely that the age of science in industry is but 

 dawning, and that the pace of inventive progress 

 must continually accelerate unless some great 

 debacle of modern civilisation occur. 



The reason for this belief lies in the change 

 that has been taking place in the science and 

 art of invention itself. In order to understand 

 the economy of scientific invention, we must 

 ask why it was that so little advance was made 

 in the industrial arts of Europe through the 

 whole period called the Middle Ages. The funda- 

 mental discoveries in mechanics and engineering, 

 in smelting and metal working, in spinning and 

 weaving, pottery, and various other crafts, were 

 known in Europe ; even the power of steam, 

 though not utilised, was known to antiquity. 

 Long before the modern era Europe was in 

 sufficient touch with the far East to have gained 

 by imitation the arts of printing, gunpowder, 

 paper-making, and other ancient Chinese arts. 

 The real reason why Europe had to wait until 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for such 

 great inventions as printing, engraving, clocks and 

 watches, the telescope and microscope, and the 

 modern flour-mill, was that the promotion of 

 industrial arts did not seriously occupy the mind 

 of any considerable section of intelligent and 

 educated people. Business is so absorbing an 

 interest to the vast majority of civilised men to-day 

 that it is difficult for us to realise how very modern 

 is this devotion to industry and commerce. The 



pursuit of knowledge until quite recent times was 



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