54 SCIENCE AND THE PRESS 



How long will it be, I wonder, before science comes to its 

 own in the general education and the general economy of the 

 nation? One would think sometimes from what people say 

 that science had gained its place. Believe me, this is not the 

 case. A good deal has been done ; science appears in our 

 curricula, and is a great deal more respectable than it was; 

 but it is still quite a prevalent opinion that a man may be 

 styled well-educated and not know any science at all. It 

 would occasion no surprise if in the whole British Cabinet 

 there were not enough science to pass one member of it through 

 a matriculation examination. This would not be so bad were 

 these people not impenitent. A remark was quoted to me the 

 other day which I believe to be typical. It came from the 

 lips of a Member of Parliament of distinguished literary position. 

 He said, ' I don't care twopence for science ; I don't know 

 why water does not run up-hill, and I don't want to know '. 

 Now, of course, the feeling behind this remark is merely that 

 science is a mechanical and soulless thing, and that with all 

 human history, human literature, human society, and human 

 nature to study, one may well be excused from spending time 

 in learning about the laws of the inanimate world. Of course 

 our friend was speaking in ignorance, and his remark was 

 exactly on a par with those we so often hear about the futility 

 of classical studies. What does it matter to a soap-boiler or 

 a surgeon who won at Marathon or Salamis ? But then our 

 friend was thought merely to be smart and amusing when he 

 gloried in his ignorance of science, whereas if the soap-boiler 

 or the surgeon had merely said Salamis instead of Salamis 

 what then ? Think of the sniffings and shrugs and glances that 

 poor uneducated man would have provoked. 



Now I have no sympathy whatever with a contemptuous 

 attitude towards classical or literary studies. All I wish to 

 say is, that until science is treated with as much respect as the 

 older subjects of study, it will not have come by its rights. 



