296 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



minds so function, and that as long as human minds continue 

 to be what they are we may expect them to follow similar 

 courses. Stories are told of great minds completing their 

 scientific discoveries in a state bordering on religious exalta- 

 tion. The tale of Isaac Newton's emotional excitement, 

 when he saw himself approaching the verification of his 

 great hypothesis, is a classic example. The story is that 

 being overcome by his emotions he asked a friend to com- 

 plete his calculations. The result was that, "in a state of 

 excitement which is said to have been so great that he could 

 hardly see his figures, he proved that the fall of a stone to 

 the earth and the majestic sweep of the moon hi her orbit 

 may be ascribed to one and the same cause. " 7 



But ordinary men may feel the thrill of discovery even 

 when the work is not their own. In intellectual manhood 

 one recalls how certain theories in science or ideas in litera- 

 ture gripped the mind when they were first apprehended. 

 It mattered not that they had been produced by others. 

 They opened new horizons. Nascent generalizations, such 

 as the Mosquito-Malaria theory as first proposed or the 

 explanation of Mendelian heredity and of sex-determination 

 in terms of chromosomes, give the joy of discovery even to 

 those who have no part in their investigation. In spite of 

 uncertainties and the necessity for further study, one often 

 feels that he is gazing at a picture, near completion and so 

 wonderfully ordered as to call forth esthetic fervor. To 

 many of us, therefore, scientific thinking and the contem- 

 plation of the theories of science, present an esthetic appeal 

 of the first order. 



Moreover, it is a fact that some of the highest forms of 

 esthetic appreciation are of comparatively recent origin, 

 having been developed within the period dominated by 

 modern science. Of all the ancient peoples, the Greeks 

 attained the greatest development of the esthetic sense; and 

 all things considered, no modern race has ever equalled their 



7 Whetham, W. C. D., and C. D., "Science and the Human Mind," p. 129. 



