THE STARTING-POINT 3 



such a pursuit, and to introduce him to the means and 

 methods of acquiring scientific knowledge. 



The ultimate scope of science is to give its pursuer as 

 correct a knowledge as possible of the nature of each 

 object studied, and the causes which have made it what 

 it is. There are, however, a multitude of things as to 

 which the beginner must at first be content simply to 

 know that they are; but none the less his aspirations 

 should always be to know also the how and why they are 

 whatever they may happen to be. 



It is, then, necessary for our purpose to begin with 

 what is most elementary and to suppose the student 

 destitute of any scientific knowledge of the multitude of 

 objects which on all sides solicit his attention. He will 

 probably at first be puzzled how best to begin his study 

 of things so various, as a simple illustration may serve to 

 show. 



Let us imagine the would-be student of science walking 

 amongst some partially wooded chalk hills on a brilliant 

 evening in early summer. Birds are singing and insects 

 humming amidst abundant wild flowers. Through a 

 gap in the hills he catches a distant glimpse of the sea, 

 with here and there a sail gleaming in the rays of the 

 setting sun. Entering the wood he follows the margin of 

 a stream which has plainly worn a way for itself, till he 

 comes upon a few sculptured fragments of a ruined abbey 

 which recall to him some erroneous notions that existed 

 when the treasures of the Record Office were still unpub- 

 lished. Meanwhile dark clouds have gathered in the 

 east, and a brilliant flash of lightning suddenly appears 

 amongst them, and he hears distant thunder while yet 

 the evening star shines calmly near the rapidly setting 

 new moon in the still clear western sky. 



What inquiry can we find which shall at one and the 



