10 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCIENCE. 



eralizations of science, and the wide application and continued 

 stability of these conclusions, is leading even philosophers and 

 metaphysicians to accord science some degree of respect. 



While at the present time there is little active opposition to 

 science, there are still many people who, through lack of infor- 

 mation, think of science as something peculiar and difficult, 

 which only persons of superior ability and intelligence can under- 

 stand and appreciate. There are many people who have no 

 idea that scientific investigations are of any interest or value 

 to them, who have no idea that they suffer less pain, will live 

 longor, are surrounded on every hand by comforts and conven- 

 iences, and means for enjoying life, all as the direct results of 

 scientific work. 



Science is neither strange nor peculiar. It deals in a business 

 way with those common facts and phenomena which are the 

 familiar events of our every-day experience. The earth on which 

 we live, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, 

 the clothes we wear, the dwellings which afford us shelter, the 

 tools we use, the soil we cultivate, the sun that rules our day, 

 the moon and stars that cheer the night, and the myriad forms 

 of vegetable and animal life that swarm around us everywhere, 

 constitute the subject matter of science. 



The discovery of facts, the arrangement of these facts in 

 accordance with their relations, and the formation of judgments 

 from these facts, which shall be free from personal feeling or bias, 

 is scientific work. Through this kind of work science attempts 

 to explain in a rational way the facts and phenomena of the 

 world. Such work results in the discovery of important laws 

 and principles, which lead the way to valuable inventions, and to 

 the development of new processes, that enable us more fully to 

 utilize the vast and varied resources of nature. Knowledge 

 gained in this way underlies the success of every industry, has 

 been potent in every wave of progress made by the human race. 



The observations of Sir Isaac Newton on the relation between 

 the motions of a falling apple and the moon, gave the world 

 clearer ideas of the order that pervades the universe. The con- 



