926 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1069 



less extent our war office, have called sci- 

 ence into their service, but our public de- 

 partments generally will have none of it. 

 Even the elements of an understanding of 

 the methods of science are not thought to be 

 essential to the education of a civil servant ; 

 such knowledge is not required even in the 

 highest branches of the Indian service— no 

 politician is for one moment supposed to 

 need it : we are governed almost entirely by 

 the literary spirit. 



The spirit of the age, in fact, is in no 

 way scientific, though ease and comfort are 

 now provided on an unprecedented scale 

 through the agency of science, the engineer 

 acting as chief interpreter. Why do we 

 still go naked and unashamed of our igno- 

 rance of "science"'? One main reason is 

 that the party in power is unscientific ; but 

 at bottom, I believe, the difficulty is a far 

 greater one and probably innate in our dis- 

 position. It can not well be supposed that 

 man is by nature disposed to be scientific. 

 The scientific fraternity, at any time, are, 

 and probably always will be, but a small 

 party — a set of freaks, sports from the 

 multitude. They think and talk in a lan- 

 guage of their own, as musicians do. The 

 multitude may listen to them at times, with 

 more or less of pleasure, as they do to music ; 

 but it is impossible, and probably always 

 will be impossible, for the many to appre- 

 ciate the methods and results of the scien- 

 tific worker. Science, in reality, is a form 

 of art, and true artists are never numer- 

 ous ; moreover, it is admitted that they are 

 born — like Topsy, they must grow, for they 

 are not to be made in numbers. Our schools 

 are for the most part in literary hands : and 

 it would almost appear that literary and 

 scientific interests are antagonistic, so un- 

 sympathetic has been the reception ac- 

 corded to science by the schools. 



Parenthetically, let me here deny the 

 accusation not infrequently made by liter- 

 ary writers that the scientific fraternity are 



trying to oust literary studies from the 

 schools. Nothing could be further from 

 the truth. We are always craving for 

 better literary training; our complaint is 

 that the methods and subject-matter of 

 literary training are far from being prop- 

 erly developed and, especially, that English 

 is neglected in the schools. Huxley stated 

 the real situation in saying. 



Science and literature are not two things, but 

 two sides of the same thing. 



The rise of science is due to the intro- 

 duction of the experimental method. Mr. 

 Balfour, in arguing, as he has done recently, 

 that science rests upon many unprovable 

 postulates and therefore does not differ in 

 method from metaphysics, has made asser- 

 tions which can not be allowed to pass as 

 correct. True science rests wholly upon 

 fact and upon logic : all else is mere provi- 

 sional hypothesis — a garment we are pre- 

 pared to put aside at any moment if cause 

 be shown. We are well aware that human 

 nature is aways intervening to spoil our 

 work ; it is human to err and false doctrine 

 may easily occupy the attention for a time, 

 but we are fully conscious of our limita- 

 tions and prepared to admit them, whilst 

 we feel that we are ever advancing towards 

 security of knowledge. 



The method of science, indeed, is the 

 method of the Chancery Court— it involves 

 the collection of all available evidence and 

 the subjection of all such evidence to the 

 most searching examination and cross- 

 examination. False evidence may be ten- 

 dered and for the time being accepted ; but 

 sooner or later the perjury is discovered. 

 Our method, in fact, goes beyond that of 

 the courts: we are not only always pre- 

 pared to reconsider our judgments, but 

 always searching for fresh evidence; we 

 dare to be positive only when, time after 

 time, the facts appear to warrant a definite 

 conclusion. But there are few instances in 



