UNIT I 

 GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THINGS 



PREVIEW 



Have you ever climbed a high hill and looked off over 

 the countryside ? What a lot of things you could see 

 trees and open fields, brooks and lakes, hills and valleys 

 with perhaps homes scattered here and there through the 

 landscape. If you looked more carefully, you could see 

 many other smaller things : the leaves on the trees, birds 

 flying, insects buzzing through the air, stones on the 

 ground. You could count hundreds of different things 

 that you could see from that one hill. 



But how were you able to know that all these different 

 things existed. You could see them, touch them, perceive 

 that some things had a pleasing odor and that some tasted 

 good or bad. It was different from seeing a picture. You 

 could tell these different things existed and were real 

 because of your ability to see, touch, smell, or taste 

 them in other words, you became acquainted with them 

 through your senses. 



A good many years ago before science was used very 

 much in people's thinking, it was the custom for some 

 philosopher to write a book, and then his pupils and all 

 who believed with him would follow exactly what was 

 said in the book without using their senses for themselves. 

 It is said that John Hunter, a famous Scottish physician 

 and surgeon, was once present at a meeting of scientists 

 when they were discussing the structure of birds. The dif- 

 ferent men present quoted from various books the sayings 



H. & W. SCI. I 2 1 



