Maech 11, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



365 



after another is arrived at. The problems 

 we have to deal with are simple in com- 

 parison with those with which the histor- 

 ian, for example, has to struggle, at least if 

 he attempts anything like the degi-ee of 

 completeness in his solution which we 

 habitiially attain. And just because we 

 have attempted a relatively modest task, 

 it has been done with a finish and degree of 

 completeness which makes it particularly 

 suitable to serve as a model of right think- 

 ing and as a means of training the minds 

 of young people in the methods of attack- 

 ing greater difficulties. Easy exercises in 

 careful observation, right inductions, log- 

 ical deductions, in which the result is defi- 

 nite and known, and a straying step can be 

 detected at any point of the path— these 

 do not make a bad beginning in the process 

 of training the young mind to use its in- 

 tellectual faculties to the best advantage. 



I have called this process easy, and yet, as 

 we all know, students do not regard it as 

 altogether a path of roses ; in fact they are 

 usually of the opinion that economics or so- 

 ciology is easier than (for example) phys- 

 ics. Now I am quite ready to admit that a 

 process of close, accurate, careful thinking 

 is never very easy; but if a man is to be 

 well educated he must have training in 

 such processes, and I am contending that 

 it is possible in the experimental sciences, 

 on account of their relative simplicity, to 

 lead men along such paths and to guide 

 and check their progi-ess with a degree of 

 precision that is too difficult even to be at- 

 tempted in subjects of study which deal 

 with more complex bodies of facts. They 

 therefore seldom attempt it, and the stu- 

 dent finds them easy ; but he has missed a 

 very vital part of education if he has not 

 been through this particular mill. 



I have been regarding scientific studies 

 from the disciplinary point of view, as val- 

 uable to the individual student, especially 



if his after life is to be devoted to some- 

 thing else than science, because they sup- 

 ply him with a standard of careful and 

 exact thinking to which he may approxi- 

 mate as closely as he can in the more com- 

 plicated affairs of life. I think we may 

 find some justification for this view of the 

 place of scientific studies in the education 

 of the individual, by a little consideration 

 of the position which such studies have 

 occupied in the history of the general de- 

 velopment of thought since they have be- 

 come conspicuous factors in that develop- 

 ment. Nobody can doubt that their direct 

 influence has been very great ; and it is not 

 at all certain that their indirect effect upon 

 the attitude and methods of scholars in 

 other fields of study has not been nearly 

 or quite as great. "VVe all know that philo- 

 logians, historians, moralists, even some 

 literary critics, have a very different point 

 of view and very different methods of 

 work from their predecessors of three 

 hundred years ago. They think more of 

 facts and less of words; they are more 

 cautious in reaching conclusions and in 

 defining the probability of the correctness 

 of their results; they are more careful to 

 guard against being prejudiced by ex- 

 ternal circumstances and implications; 

 they get as near to first-hand evidence as 

 they can. A great many of them are 

 proud of using a "scientific" method and 

 most of them habitually give the name of 

 science to their subjects of study. 



Now I am far from assuming that the 

 so-called scientific method is, in its details, 

 an entirely new invention; it is, after all, 

 only applied common-sense and men have 

 been using it in practical affairs since be- 

 fore the dawn of history. But its use as a 

 definite, conscious, consistent policy, the 

 recognition of its value and of its limita- 

 tions, the perfection of its application, 

 these, I believe, we do owe mainly to the 



