42 ON SOME ASPECTS OF THE 



' Now let the moon-dogs bark 'till their throats are dry.' l 

 Glanville became actually prophetic in his survey. With 

 the vision of a seer he anticipated ' that to confer at the 

 distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyances may 

 be as usual to future times as to us in a literary correspon- 

 dence.' His antagonist, Stubbe, covered him with ridicule 

 for making such a preposterous statement. 



The particular aspect of the scientific method which 

 evoked all this criticism and ridicule was, and still is, a 

 very real one. The goal towards which the scientific 

 worker aspires is not increase of personal wealth indeed, 

 this is often diminished by his labour ; his aim is to 

 disclose scientific truth, and for this purpose every natural 

 phenomenon, however minute or apparently useless, will 

 suffice to kindle his enthusiasm and to employ all his 

 faculties. His occupation is ennobled by its purpose, 

 that of setting forth natural phenomena in causative array. 

 To effect this purpose investigations have to be under- 

 taken of the aspects which these phenomena present 

 under all manner of conditions. It is instructive in this con- 

 nexion to consider the significance of scientific experiment 

 as contrasted with scientific observation. Science always 

 begins with observation ; many observed phenomena 

 have occurred once for all time and cannot be observed 

 again ; others occur daily, hourly, when we please, and 

 observations can then be repeated over and over again. 

 As regards some of these, although the attendant condi- 

 tions change, any alteration in such conditions is beyond 

 our control, but in regard to a great mass of natural 

 phenomena it lies within our power, not only to obtain 

 their occurrence when we please, but also to alter the con- 

 ditions under which such occurrence takes place ; we can 



1 See Greenslet's Study of Joseph Glanville. 





