THE PLACE OF SCIENCE 297 



them. "The ordinary run of men," says Sir 

 Oliver Lodge, " live among phenomena of which 

 they care nothing and know less. They see bodies 

 fall to the earth, they hear sounds, they kindle fires, 

 they see the heavens roll above them, but of the 

 causes and inner workings of the whole they are 

 ignorant, and with their ignorance they are content." 

 Why is this ? Is it not strange ? 



We cannot all be practical scientists, but we 

 can all take an interest in scientific problems and 

 achievements, and in their imaginative references ; 

 and there is no interest in the world more living 

 and lasting. " Science," says Renan, " will always 

 remain the gratification of the noblest craving of 

 our nature curiosity ; it will always supply man 

 with the sole means of improving his lot." 

 ^ It is time that men knew that Science does not 

 write with the cold finger of a starfish ; it is time 

 that men realised that true science is not a mere 

 compilation of dead facts ; it is time that men 

 understood that Science is flamboyant and alive. .) 



The religious have shunned Science because its 

 premises lead logically to irreligious conclusions — 

 to the belief that mind is a transient function of a 

 perishable brain — to the belief that the earth is only 

 a bubble in the ocean of space and time. But Science 

 now gives up her dogmatism — birth and death, the 

 beginnings and endings of things, the nature of 



