THE RELATIONSHIPS OF GENERAL SCIENCE 6 



practical man, the scientist would lack many of his greatest 

 conveniences. 



4. Growth of Science. The knowledge of scientific things 

 was the latest department of the human understanding to be 

 developed. Long before scientific methods came to be, art, 

 music, literature, history, mathematics, and many other such 

 subjects of study flourished. "The scientific attitude of 

 mind" was rare in the days before the tools with which the 

 scientist now works were invented. When the microscope, 

 the telescope, the spectroscope and many other instruments of 

 precision appeared, scientists made rapid progress. In the 

 early days, too, ignorance and superstition conspired to retard 

 scientific progress, and even sincere and inquiring minds found 

 that the secrets of nature were discovered with difficulty. In 

 these modern days, however, the conditions are changed, and 

 every facility is offered the scientist in pursuing his investi- 

 gations. The result is a wonderful development of all phases 

 of science, but wonderful as the advance has been, it is prob- 

 ably not to be compared with what the future has in store 

 for us. A general knowledge of scientific things, therefore, 

 has become almost a necessity. 



5. Practical Value. The practical value of scientific dis- 

 coveries lies in the power it gives us over the forces of nature, to 

 the end that our lives may be made easier, happier, and richer. 

 Few, if any, of our modern conveniences, not to speak of lux- 

 uries, would be possible without the scientist. Automobiles, 

 telephones, aeroplanes, wireless telegraphy, submarines, ther- 

 mos bottles, electric lights, steam engines, explosives, and a 

 host of other things will come to mind in this connection. The 

 structure or operation of these is often a matter of special 

 study, but one does not need to be a machinist, a chemist, or a 

 physicist to understand the principles on which they work. 

 Moreover, life means more to those who understand why it 

 rains, why it snows, why summer is hot and winter cold, why 



