i6 SCIENCE AND xMETHOD. 



cheek, in which we should find good people devoid of 

 curiosity, who, avoiding all excesses, would not die 

 of any disease — save boredom. But it is all a matter 

 of taste, and that is not the point I wish to discuss. 



None the less the question remains, and it claims 

 our attention. If our selection is only determined by 

 caprice or by immediate necessity, there can be no 

 science for science's sake, and consequently no science. 

 Is this true? There is no disputing the fact that a 

 selection must be made : however great our activity, 

 facts outstrip us, and we can never overtake them ; 

 while the scientist is discovering one fact, millions 

 and millions are produced in every cubic inch of his 

 body. Trying to make science contain nature is like 

 trying to make the part contain the whole. 



But scientists believe that there is a hierarchy 

 of facts, and that a judicious selection can be made. 

 They are right, for otherwise there would be no science, 

 and science does exist. One has only to open one's 

 eyes to see that the triumphs of industry, which have 

 enriched so many practical men, would never have 

 seen the light if only these practical men had existed, 

 and if they had not been preceded by disinterested 

 fools who died poor, who never thought of the u.seful, 

 and yet had a guide that was not their own caprice. 



What these fools did, as Mach has said, was to save 

 their successors the trouble of thinking. If they had 

 worked solely in view of an immediate application, 

 they would have left nothing behind them, and in face 

 of a new requirement, all would have had to be done 

 again. Now the majority of men do not like thinking, 

 and this is perhaps a good thing, since instinct guides 

 them, and very often better than reason would guide 



(1.777) 



