CHAPTER XXXVI 

 SCIENCE AND THE UNKNOWN 



IT is a remarkable fact that although the first efforts 

 of the founders of the Royal Society for the Promotion 

 of Natural Knowledge, two hundred and fifty years ago, 

 in this country, and of other such associations on the 

 Continent, had the immediate effect of destroying a 

 large amount of that fantastic superstition and credulity 

 which had until then prevailed in all classes of society, 

 and although that period marks the transition from 

 the astounding and terrible nightmares of the Middle 

 Ages to a happier condition when witchcraft, sorcery, 

 and baseless imaginings concerning natural things gave 

 place to knowledge founded on careful observation and 

 experiment — yet the ugly baleful relic of savagery died 

 hard, even in the most civilized communities. 



In spite of all the light that has been shed upon 

 obscure processes, and all the triumphs of the knowledge 

 of " the order of Nature," there remains to this day in 

 this country a surprising amount of ignorance, accom- 

 panied by blind unreasoning devotion to traditional 

 beliefs in magic, and a love of the preposterous fancies 

 of a barbarous past, simply because they are preposterous ! 

 " There is something in it," is a favourite phrase, and the 

 words put by Shakespear into the mouth of the demented 

 Hamlet, who thinks he has seen and conversed with 



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