11 



THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN A 

 LIBERAL EDUCATION 



OCIENCE, to the ordinary reader of newspapers, is 

 ^ represented by a varying selection of sensational 

 triumphs, such as wireless telegraphy and aeroplanes, 

 radio-activity and the marvels of modern alchemy. It 

 is not of this aspect of science that I wish to speak. 

 Science, in this aspect, consists of detached up-to-date 

 fragments, interesting only until they are replaced by 

 something newer and more up-to-date, displaying 

 nothing of the systems of patiently constructed know- 

 ledge out of which, almost as a casual incident, have 

 come the practically useful results which interest the 

 man in the street. The increased command over the 

 forces of nature which is derived from science is un- 

 doubtedly an amply sufficient reason for encouraging 

 scientific research, but this reason has been so often 

 urged and is so easily appreciated that other reasons, 

 to my mind quite as important, are apt to be overlooked. 

 It is with these other reasons, especially with the in- 

 trinsic value of a scientific habit of mind in forming our 

 outlook on the world, that I shall be concerned in what 

 follows. 



The instance of wireless telegraphy will serve to illus- 

 tra^ the difference between the two points of view. 

 Almost all the serious intellectual labour required for the 



