GERMAN SCIENCE 117 



days, has been the supreme influence in the great seats of 

 learning, that have dominated our education and have trained 

 the leaders of our national affairs. 



I say that the man of letters has not found science edifying. 

 I have often heard him say with extraordinary composure that 

 he knew nothing at all about it, much in the same way that the 

 best-dressed aristocrat in the House of Commons once ex- 

 plained in the course of a debate, that he had never been an 

 agricultural labourer. Science has not gained the regard of 

 the man of letters not only because of the suspicion that it 

 would tend to divert people from literary studies, to which, 

 rightly enough, he attaches vast importance ; but because the 

 thing in itself has not seemed to confer much benefit on the 

 human mind or the human spirit, however far its applications 

 might minister to material well-being. 



Now I do not quarrel altogether with this point of view. 

 It is perfectly true, in the first place, that science has had to 

 adopt an aggressive attitude. It has had to struggle and to 

 fight against tremendous obstacles for recognition not merely 

 as a worthy but as a legitimate subject of study. It has had 

 constantly to assail deep-rooted prejudices and trench on 

 vested interests, and so what is naturally a peaceful pursuit 

 became associated with the idea of idol-smashing and aggres- 

 sion. Besides this, it is only fair to admit that science has 

 been taught and practised by multitudes of people in this 

 country in a truly unedifying way, and bad science is, I think, 

 the most unprofitable mental food that can be administered in 

 the name of knowledge or culture to any human being. A 

 man may outlive a diet of tough irregular verbs, hard-boiled 

 literature, unleavened history, and philosophical dish-water, 

 and yet become a speaker of languages, a lover of books, 

 a student of the vital past and a reflective inquirer into the 

 operations of the mind. Later experience of the realities of 

 life may in these things beget a clearer vision and give a new 



