RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



ferences. Natural science is so called because it has 

 to do with observed phenomena of nature. 



NATURAL VERSUS SUPERNATURAL 



A further word must be said as to this word "nat- 

 ural," and its complementary word "supernatural." 

 I have said in an early chapter that prehistoric man 

 came, through a use of false inductions, to the belief in 

 supernatural powers. Let us examine this statement 

 in some detail, for it will throw much light on our later 

 studies. The thing to get clearly in mind is the idea 

 that when we say "natural" phenomena we mean 

 merely phenomena that have been observed to occur. 

 From a truly scientific stand-point there is no pre- 

 conception as to what manner of phenomenon may, 

 or may not, occur. All manner of things do occur con- 

 stantly that would seem improbable were they not 

 matters of familiar knowledge. The simplest facts in 

 regard to gravitation involve difficulties that were 

 stumbling-blocks to many generations of thinkers, and 

 which continue stumbling-blocks to the minds of each 

 generation of present-day children. 



Thus most of us can recall a time when we first learn- 

 ed with astonishment that the earth is "round like a 

 ball" ; that there are people walking about on the other 

 side of the world with their feet towards ours, and that 

 the world itself is rushing through space and spinning 

 rapidly about as it goes. Then we learn, further, that 

 numberless familiar phenomena would be quite differ- 

 ent could we be transported to other globes. That, 

 for example, a man who can spring two or three feet 

 into the air here would be able, with the same muscular 



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