September 22, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



409 



Once more, we must never lose sight of the 

 fact that from the Early Aurignacian 

 Period onwards a negroid element in the 

 broadest sense of the word shared in this 

 artistic culture as seen on both sides of the 

 Pyrenees. 



At least we now know that cave man did 

 not suffer any sudden extinction, though 

 on the European side, partly, perhaps, 

 owing to the new climatic conditions, this 

 culture underwent a marked degeneration. 

 It may well be that, as the osteological evi- 

 dence seems to imply, some outgrowth of 

 the old Cro-Magnon type actually perpetu- 

 ated itself in the Dordogne. We have cer- 

 tainly lengthened our knowledge of the 

 Palaeolithic. But in the present state of the 

 evidence it seems better to subscribe to 

 Cartailhac's view that its junction with 

 the Neolithic has not yet been reached. 

 There does not seem to be any real contin- 

 uity between the culture revealed at Mag- 

 lemose and that of the immediately super- 

 posed Early Neolithic stratum of the 

 shell-mounds, which, moreover, as has been 

 already said, evidence a change both in 

 climatic and geological conditions, imply- 

 ing a considerable interval of time. 



Arthur Evans 



University of Oxford 



(To be continued) 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THOUGHT i 



The subject of this address is the organi- 

 zation of thought, a topic evidently capable 

 of many diverse modes of treatment. I in- 

 tend more particularly to give some account 

 of that department of logical science with 

 which some of my own studies have been 

 connected. But I am anxious, if I can suc- 

 ceed in so doing, to handle this account so 

 as to exhibit the relation with certain con- 



i Address of the president of the Mathematical 

 and Physical Science Section, British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, Neweastle-on- 

 Tyne, 1916. 



siderations which underlie general scien- 

 tific activities. 



It is no accident that an age of science 

 lias developed into an age of organization. 

 Organized thought is the basis of organized 

 action. Organization is the adjustment of 

 diverse elements so that their mutual rela- 

 tions may exhibit some predetermined 

 quality. An epic poem is a triumph of or- 

 ganization, that is to say, it is a triumph in 

 the unlikely event of it being a good epic 

 poem. It is the successful organization of 

 multitudinous sounds of words, associations 

 of words, pictorial memories of diverse 

 events and feelings ordinarily occurring in 

 life, combined with a special narrative of 

 great events: the whole so disposed as to 

 excite emotions which, as denned by Mil- 

 ton, are simple, sensuous and passionate. 

 The number of successful epic poems is 

 commensurate, or rather, is inversely com- 

 mensurate with the obvious difficulty of 

 the task of organization. 



Science is the organization of thought. 

 But the example of the epic poem warns us 

 that science is not any organization of 

 thought. It is an organization of a certain 

 definite type which we will endeavor to 

 determine. 



Science is a river with two sources, the 

 practical source and the theoretical source. 

 The practical source is the desire to direct 

 our actions to achieve predetermined ends. 

 For example, the British nation, fighting 

 for justice, turns to science, which teaches 

 it the importance of compounds of nitrogen. 

 The theoretical source is the desire to 

 understand. Now I am going to emphasize 

 the importance of theory in science. But 

 to avoid misconception I most emphatically 

 state that I do not consider one source as in 

 any sense nobler than the other, or intrin- 

 sically more interesting. I can not see why 

 it is nobler to strive to understand than to 

 busy oneself with the right ordering of one 's 



