Science in Public Affairs 



provide for the few and simple wants of the aged 

 astronomer in his retirement. Representations 

 were made to the Central Government, and a 

 complacent officialdom awarded an increase of the 

 pension at the amount and rate of 2s. 6d. per week. 

 If we assume that at present there is no science, but 

 sciences unclassified and therefore ungeneralised, 

 it would seem to follow that there is no scientific 

 ideal, but only scientific ideals unharmonised ; 

 and no scientific policy, but only scientific policies 

 un-co-ordinated. The scientific party, or what 

 would be the scientific party if there was a com- 

 mon doctrine to give it cohesion, is broken up into 

 disparate groups, most of which do not speak each 

 other's language. For instance, the mathematician 

 and the physiologist are separated from each other 

 by a wide arc in the circle of the sciences ; but 

 they have this in common, that each holds it an 

 article of faith that he would fall short of his 

 scientific duty if he did not acquire the language of 

 France, Germany, and Italy, as well as of England. 

 But if it should happen that here and there a 

 mathematician or physiologist takes the pains of 

 learning the language of comparative ethics, folk- 

 lore, economics, or any other sociological field, he 

 will be held by his brother mathematicians and 

 physiologists to be doing what is at best a work of 

 supererogation, at worst an act of reprehensible 

 wastefulness. To the scientist of the physical or 

 biological group it appears as much and as little 

 a matter of professional obligation to acquire the 

 language of the sociological group as to acquire 



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