08 PROF. LIONEL S, BEALE, F.R.C.P., F.R.S., ON VITALITY. 
and “disintegration,” and a number of others that I might 
mention as applicable to non-living matter, which are also 
applied to things alive. It is of course necessary to insist 
that in any discussion the exact meaning attached to the 
words used should alone be adopted. We must remember 
that the Greeks taught us the necessity of moderation, of 
limitation, of restraint in reasoning and philosophical dis- 
cussion. 
Now, the conclusions which I venture to bring forward 
with regard to vitality are conclusions which rest on facts 
of actual observation on the nature of things I have myself 
seen and examined many times. 
It may seem strange for an advocate of minute 
investigation and microscopical research towards the close 
of the nineteenth century and familiar with the best instru- 
ments and the highest magnifying powers, who therefore must. 
be greatly interested in modern work, to extol Greek methods. 
and Greek thought. I cannot, however, help alluding to a 
word which has been particularly advocated and explained 
by My. Benn, who is the distinguished author of an excellent 
book published within the last three or four months, ealled 
The Philosophy of Greece. Now in this book Mr. Benn tells 
us much about Sophrosyne, which according to him should 
be understood to mean “self-knowledge,” self-control, the ruling 
principle of Greek life, Greek art, and Greek thought. 
We, as followers, ought to be moderate in our views, at 
least until we are perfectly certain we are right. Even in 
science we ought not to be too certain, or to claim authority 
except it rest upon evidence. Few things do more harm by 
retarding real progress, and by interfering with the progress 
of knowledge, than the fashion of raising up “authorities ” 
one after the other in science. There is no authority in 
science. The question is not as to authority, but as to fact. 
It is by the finding out and the demonstration of new facts that 
science isadvanced. And scientific discoveries are more diffi- 
cult, and far more laborious, than making the generalizations 
which indeed usually follow almost as a matter of course. 
There ought indeed to be exercise of self-restraint, and, 
as Mr. Benn says, “Socrates applied to words and to their 
correlative mental representations the old Greek method of 
limit and circumscription, imposing the duty of Sophrosyne 
on thought itself” (p. 174, The Philosophy of Greece, by 
Alfred William Benn, London, Grant. Richards). I will 
just give one more extract from this very interesting and 
