NULLIUS IN VERBA 145 



Another characteristic of science is that it 

 makes us able to predict. I have already referred 

 to the fact that Queen Anne is dead, and we know, 

 or are told, that she died, as I said before, in 1714 ; 

 we also know that George I. died in 1727, and 

 George II. in 1760, but that would not enable us 

 to predict that George III. would die in 1 820. They 

 are isolated facts not connected by the causal bond 

 that knits together a series of scientific truths. 

 And this is after all a fortunate thing for the peace 

 of mind of reigning sovereigns. 



It is said that you should never prophesy unless 

 you know. But science is made up of prophecies. 

 Some are famous, like the prediction of Adams and 

 Leverrier that a new planet would be found in a 

 stated position. Some are on a humbler scale, 

 such as my father's prediction that a big moth 

 would be found to carry the pollen of Hedychium 

 by brushing it off with the tips of its hovering wings, 

 a method of fertilisation unheard of at the time, 

 which however proved to be the fact. 



You may say that it does not matter whether 

 the moth does this particular thing or not. This 

 is no doubt true from a strictly commercial point 

 of view. But in science all facts have some value. 

 We should cultivate a point of view about facts 

 the very reverse of that of the unknown person who 

 said that all books are rather dull. 



I once heard a celebrated physicist describe how 

 he explained to an American business man an 

 elaborate spectroscope for examining the sun. The 

 American asked what good it was. The physicist 

 explained that with it you can discover whether or 



