THE SCIENTIFIC MOOD. 7 



tuted science). But it is a natural and necessary ex- 

 pression of the developing human spirit, and supplies 

 the foundation without which practice is merely em- 

 pirical and emotion superstitious. 



CHAKACTERISTICS OF THE SCIENTIFIC MOOD. 



In his stimulating presidential address at the meet- 

 ing of the British Association at Dover in 1899, 

 Sir Michael Foster raised the question of the dis- 

 tinctive features of the scientific spirit. " What 

 are the qualities," he asked, " the features of that 

 scientific mind which has wrought, and is working, 

 such great changes in man's relation to nature ? " 

 And his answer was that the features of the fruitful 

 scientific mind are in the main three.* 



" In the first place, above all other things, his 

 nature must be one which vibrates in unison with 

 that of which he is in search; the seeker after truth 

 must himself be truthful, truthful with the truthful- 

 ness of nature; which is far more imperious, far 

 more exacting than that which man sometimes calls 

 truthfulness. 



" In the second place, he must be alert of mind. 

 Nature is ever making signs to us, she is ever whis- 

 pering to us the beginnings of her secrets ; the scien- 

 tific man must be ever on the watch, ready at once to 

 lay hold of Nature's hint, however small, to listen to 

 her whisper, however low. 



" In the third place, scientific enquiry, though it 

 be pre-eminently an intellectual effort, has need of 

 the moral quality of courage not so much the cour- 

 age which helps a man to face a sudden difficulty as 

 the courage of steadfast endurance." 



* Report British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, 1899, pp. 16-17. 



