40 WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 



pleasure, on the nature and intellectual value of what we can learn. 

 His thoughts in this field of the principles of science were event- 

 ually embodied in his lectures on the " Foundations of Zoology" 

 (1899). This remarkable book " belongs to literature, as well as 

 to science. It belongs to philosophy as much as to either, for it is 

 full of that fundamental wisdom about realities which alone is 

 worthy of the name of philosophy." 20 



Brooks was distinctly the philosophic type of naturalist. He 

 was fully informed, critical, and constructive in special fields, 

 but always aware that such fields were merely parts of a larger 

 whole. Thus through the bent of his mind Brooks, the keen- 

 sighted pioneer, and influential biologist, was also interested in 

 and in thorough sympathy with life and living in all aspects, past, 

 present and future, intellectual, emotional, and religious. Per- 

 haps for that reason, too, he was a great teacher and inspirer 

 of men. 



The " Foundations" is essentially a discussion of the nature 

 of scientific knowledge. It is the wise talk of an experienced, 

 reflective naturalist of ripe years addressed primarily to younger 

 fellow-workers in the fields of science. The argument which makes 

 its way through pages and sometimes whole chapters of illustra- 

 tions and digressions, interesting and suggestive in themselves, 

 proceeds about as follows : 



Our only knowledge of nature is through experience. Through 

 experience we learn that one sort of event follows another, and 

 this sequence, which we come to expect, constitutes for us the 

 order of nature. Nevertheless there is no reason to believe that 

 there is an inherent necessity in this order, for we never perceive 

 the presence of any intrinsic causal connection between the pre- 

 ceding event (cause) and the succeeding one (effect) . 



When our knowledge of any part of nature has so far developed 

 that we know the order of events, and so can predict the later 

 steps in the series of occurrences, once the earlier have been noted, 

 we say that we understand and can mechanically explain that 

 particular set of phenomena. At present a gap separates vital 



20 President D. S. Jordan. 



