INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW EDITION 



OF HALF-HOURS WITH MODERN 



SCIENTISTS. 



The title of this Series of Essays Half Hours 

 with Modern Scientists suggests a variety of 

 thoughts, some of which may not be inappropriate 

 for a brief introduction to a new edition. Scientist 

 is a modern appellation which has been specially 

 selected to designate a devotee to one or more 

 branches of physical science. Strictly interpreted 

 it might properly be applied to the student of any 

 department of knowledge when prosecuted in a 

 scientific method, but for convenience it is limited 

 to the student of some branch of physics. It is 

 not thereby conceded that nature, i. e., physical or 

 material nature is any more legitimately or ex- 

 clusively the field for scientific enquiries than spirit, 

 or that whether the objects of science are material 

 or spiritual, the assumptions and processes of 

 science themselves should not be subjected to scien- 

 tific analysis and justification. There are so-called 

 philosophers who adopt both these conclusions. 

 There are those who reason and dogmatize as 

 though nature were synonymous with matter, or as 

 though spirit, if there be such an essence, must be 

 conceived and explained after the principles and 

 analogies of matter ; others assume that a science 

 of scientific method can be nothing better than the 



