TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 527 
desire becomes a guiding passion. The instinctive tendency to search out the 
causes of things, gradually strengthening as generation after generation of men have 
stumbled and struggled in ignorance, has at last become an active and widely- 
extending force: it has given rise to a new faith. 
To obey this instinct—that is, to aid in the production of new knowledge—is 
the keenest and the purest pleasure of which man is capable, greater than that 
derived from the exercise of his animal faculties, in proportion as man’s mind is 
something greater and further developed than the mind of brutes. It is in 
itself an unmixed good, the one thing which commends itself as still ‘worth 
while’ when all other employments and delights prove themselves stale and 
unprofitable, 
Arrogant and foolish as those men have appeared who, in times of persecution 
and in the midst of a contemptuous society, have, with an ardour proportioned to 
the prevailing neglect, pursued some special line of scientific inquiry, it is never- 
theless true that in itself, apart from special social conditions, Science must deve- 
lop in a community which honours and desires it before all things, qualities and 
characteristics which are the highest, the most human of human attributes. 
These are, firstly, the fearless love and unflinching acceptance of truth; hopeful 
patience ; that true humility which is content not to know what cannot be nown, 
yet labours and waits; love of Nature, who is not less, but more, worshipped 
by those who know her best; love of the human brotherhood for whom and 
with whom the growth of science is desired and effected. 
No one can trace the limits of Science, nor the possibilities of happiness both of 
mind and body which it may bring in the future to mankind. Boundless though 
the prospect is, yet the minutest contribution to the onward growth has its absolute 
and unassailable value; once made it can never be lost: its effect is for ever in 
the history of man. 
Arts perish, and the noblest works which artists give to the world. Art 
(though the source of great and noble delights) cannot create nor perpetuate; it 
embodies only that which already exists in human experience, whilst the results of 
its highest flights are doomed to decay and sterility. A vain regret, a constant 
effort to emulate or to imitate the past, is the fitting and laudable characteristic of 
Art at the present day. There is, indeed, no truth in the popular partition of human 
affairs between Science and Art as between two antagonistic or even comparable 
interests; but the contrast which they present in points such as those just men- 
tioned is forcible. Science is essentially creative; new knowledge—the experience 
and understanding of things which were previously non-existent for man’s intelligence, 
is its constant achievement. And these creations never perish; the new is built 
on and incorporates the old ; there is no turning back to recover what has lapsed 
through age; the oldest discovery is even fresher than the new, yielding in ever 
increasing number new results, in which it is itself reproduced and perpetuated, as 
the parent in the child. 
‘his, then, is the faith which has taken shape in proportion as the innate desire 
of man for more knowledge has asserted itself—namely, that there is no greater 
good than the increase of Science; that through it all other good will follow. 
Good as Science is in itself, the desire and search for it is even better, raising men 
above vile things and worthless competitions to a fuller life and keener enjoyments. 
Through it we believe that man will be saved from misery and degradation, not 
merely acquiring new material powers, but learning to use and to guide his life with 
understanding. Through Science he will be freed from the fetters of superstition ; 
through faith in Science he will acquire a new and enduring delight in the exercise 
of his capacities: he will gain a zest and interest in life such as the present phase 
of culture fails to supply. ; 
In opposition to the view that the pursuit of Science can obtain a strong hold 
upon human life, it may be argued, that on no reasonable ground can it appear a 
necessary or advantageous thing to the individual man to concern himself with the 
growth and progress of that which is merely likely to benefit the distant posterity 
of the human race. Our reply is; Let those who contend for the reasonableness 
of human motives develop, if they can, any theory of human conduct in which 
