SCIENCE AND THE THOUGHT OF THE WORLD 



Experimental science came as the liberator of men's 

 minds, setting free from the prison-house of conventional 

 beliefs the spirits which had been lying for generations in 

 the bonds of the dogmas of past ages. Slowly men came 

 to acknowledge that the arbitrary authority of names, 

 and of systems of belief however greatly venerated, must 

 give way when science speaks with the reasonable authority 

 of experiment and observation. This new form of 

 authority, to which men were coming to yield an unquestion- 

 ing obedience, unlike the dogmatic teachers at whose feet 

 they had sat, does not claim finality for its opinions. It 

 is the distinctive glory of experimental science that it 

 is for ever seeking further truth in all directions, and is 

 always ready to change its opinions into agreement with 

 the newest knowledge, whithersoever it may lead, which 

 it is able to wrest from Nature by experiment. There 

 are many striking recent examples, of which I will mention 

 only the unexpected phenomena of radio-activity, and 

 the acute earnestness of the biologist of to-day in his quest 

 after the fundamental nature and scope of living things. 



In this way, during the last half-century, under the 

 freer conditions of general thought introduced by natural 

 science, men gradually became accustomed to wide differ- 

 ences of personal opinion, and so no longer feared them ; 

 there arose slowly the spirit of modern toleration and the 

 recognition of the right of every man to judge for himself 

 on all matters of opinion, that is, to allow himself to be 



guided by his reason, which demands sufficient evidence 



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