232 MODERN SCIENCE READER 



dictionary gives this definition : * ' Knowledge ; knowledge 

 of principles and causes; ascertained truth, or facts. . . . 

 Accumulated and established knowledge which has been 

 systematized and formulated with reference to the dis- 

 covery of general truths or the operation of general laws, 

 . . . especially such knowledge when it relates to the 

 physical world, and its phenomena, the nature, constitution 

 and forces of matter, the qualities and function of living 

 tissues, etc." 



One writer says: "The distinction between science and 

 art is that science is a body of principles and deductions to 

 explain the nature of some matter. An art is a body of 

 precepts with practical skill for the completion of some 

 work. A science teaches us to know; an art, to do. In 

 art, truth is a means to an end ; in science it is the only end. 

 Hence the practical arts are not to be classed among the 

 sciences." Another writer says: "Science and art may 

 be said to be investigations of truth; but one, science, in- 

 quires for the sake of knowledge ; the other, art, for the 

 sake of production; and hence science is more concerned 

 with the higher truths, art with the lower; and science 

 never is engaged, as art is, in productive application." 



Science, then has for its object the accumulation and 

 systematization of knowledge, the discovery of truth. The 

 astronomer is trying to learn more and more about the 

 celestial bodies, their motions, their composition, their 

 changes. Through his labors, carried on for many cen- 

 turies, we have the science of astronomy. 



The geologist has, on the other hand, confined his atten- 

 tion to the earth, and he is trying to learn as much as pos- 

 sible of its composition and structure, and of the processes 

 that have been operating through untold ages to give us 

 the earth as it now is. He has given us the science of 

 geology, which consists of a vast mass of knowledge care- 

 fully systematized and of innumerable deductions of in- 

 terest and value. If the time should ever come when, 

 through the labors of the geologist, all that can possibly be 



