12 MODERN SCIENCE : 



formed. No one has the faintest notion of all the various movements and 

 combinations of the molecules of these two fluids which accompany the 

 appearance of the precipitate. They are no doubt very complex. Bui 

 among all the changes that are taking place, one change has the advantage 

 of being visible to the eye, and the chemist singles that out as the mair 

 phenomenon. So chemistry at large consists in a few, very few, facts 

 taken at random as it were (or because they happen to be of such a nature 

 as to be observable) out of the enormous mass of facts really concerned 

 and because of their fewness the chemist is able to arrange them as he 

 thinks in some order, that is, to generalise about them. But it is certair 

 as can be that he only has to extend the number of his facts, or his powen 

 of observation, to get all his generalisations upset. The same may b( 

 said of magnetism, light, heat, and the other physical sciences but it is 

 not necessary to prove in detail what is sufficiently obvious. 



But now, roughly speaking, there is a third region of human observa- 

 tion a region which does not, like Astronomy (and Geology), lie so fai 

 beyond and above us that we only see a very small portion of it ; nor, lik< 

 Chemistry and Physics, so far below us and under such minute condition; 

 of space and time that we can only catch its general effects ; but whicl: 

 lies more on a level with man himself the so-called organic world the 

 study of man, as an individual and in society, his history, his develop- 

 ment, the study of the animals, the plants even, and the laws of life the 

 sciences of Biology, Sociology, History, Psychology, and the rest. Nov 

 this region is obviously that which man knows most of. I don't say tha - 

 he generalises most about it but he knows the facts best. For one 

 observation that he makes of the habits and behavior of the stars, or o 

 chemical solutions for one observation in the remote regions of Astron- 

 omy or Chemistry he makes thousands and millions of the habits anc 

 behavior of his fellow-men, and hundreds and thousands of those of the 

 animals and plants. Is it not curious then that in this region he is leas 

 sure, least dogmatic, most doubtful whether there be a law or no ? Or, 

 rather, is it not quite in accord with our contention, namely that Science, 

 like an uninformed boy, is most definite and dogmatic just where actua 

 knowledge is least. 



It will however be replied that the phenomena of living beings are 

 far more complex than the phenomena of Astronomy or Physics anc 

 that is the reason why exact science makes so little way with them. 

 Though man knows many million times more about the habits of his 

 fellow-men than about the habits of the stars, yet the former subject is sc 

 many million times more complicated than the latter that all his ad- 

 ditional knowledge does not avail him. This is the plea. Yet it does 

 not hold water. It is an entire assumption to say that the phenomena 

 of Astronomy are less complicated than the phenomena of vitality. A 

 moment's thought will show that the phenomena of Astronomy are in 

 reality infinitely complex. Take the movement of the moon: even with 



