A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



thousand years, and could not be substituted by the 

 true theory without a fierce struggle; and, to cite an 

 even more striking illustration, the early generaliza- 

 tions of primitive man which explain numberless phe- 

 nomena of nature as due to an influence of unseen an- 

 thropomorphic beings remain to this day one of the 

 most powerful influences that affect our race an in- 

 fluence from which we shall never shake ourselves alto- 

 gether free until the average man and particularly the 

 average woman learns to be a good observer and a 

 logical reasoner. 



Something towards this end is being accomplished by 

 the introduction of experimental research and scien- 

 tific study in general in our schools and colleges. It is 

 hoped that something towards the same end may be 

 accomplished through study of the history of the de- 

 velopment of science. Scarcely anything is more il- 

 luminative than to observe critically the mistakes of 

 our predecessors, noting how natural the mistakes were 

 and how tenaciously they were held to, how strenu- 

 ously defended. Most of all it would be of value to 

 note that the false inductions which have everywhere 

 hampered the progress of science have been, from the 

 stand -point of the generation in which they originated, 

 for the most part logical inductions. We have seen 

 that the Ptolemaic scheme of the universe, false though 

 it was in its very essentials, yet explained in what may 

 be termed a thoroughly scientific fashion the observed 

 phenomena. It is one way of expressing a fact to say 

 that the sun moves across the heavens from the eastern 

 to the western horizon ; and for most practical purposes 

 this assumption answers perfectly. It is only when we 



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