Science in Public Affairs 



and functional aspects. And every city has for the 

 sociologist its corresponding problems of factual 

 observation, of historical analysis, and of scientific 

 interpretation. All these again, to be sure, assume 

 their place as specialist researches within the larger 

 problems of general sociology. 



Now, if we apply the four-fold sociological for- 

 mulae above indicated to the present and future 

 phases of science, considered as a spiritual power, 

 what inferences may we legitimately draw ? The 

 existing groups of science, whether or not or- 

 ganised in definite societies, are comparable, we 

 have seen, to the various sects of the religious 

 community. Now these numerous and varying 

 sects, like their more archaic religious types, have 

 their rivalries, jealousies, feuds and bickerings. 

 The mathematicians, for instance, are apt to form 

 an exclusive caste apart, holding no converse with 

 groups which know not their particular shibboleths. 

 Again, the spectacle might have been seen, at a 

 recent meeting of the British Association, of rival 

 biological factions warmly anathematising each 

 other. A momentous and historic instance of 

 scientific sectionalism is seen in a work now in 

 progress, which is probably the largest co-operative 

 enterprise yet undertaken by modern scientists. 

 A few years ago the Royal Society convened in 

 London a great gathering a sort of Council of 

 Trent of scientific fathers, representing all the 

 leading academies and societies of Europe and 

 America. The purpose of this great gathering 

 was to decide upon an authorised canon of the 



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