60 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. G. 



gaged in scientific research for tlie purpose 

 of discovering the characteristics of the five 

 great systems of humanities as thej^ are 

 represented in the daily life of peoples. 

 This is found to be a book of many books, 

 gathered into libraries of tribes and nations. 

 Let us call this the Folk Book. 



Gradually man has developed written 

 speech. He has learned to wiite his 

 thoughts in glyphs of meaning on rocks, on 

 bark, on the skins of animals, on tablets of 

 stone and clay and on parchments made of 

 many fibers. It is thus that we have tomes 

 in written language which are gathered in 

 libraries scattered over aU the world of en- 

 lightenment. 



In these books the opinions of mankind 

 are gradaullj^ collected, and the process has 

 been going on since the dawn of civilization. 

 The erroneous and the correct, the true and 

 the false, have both been recorded, so that 

 the books contain a strange mixture of 

 truth and error. Yet when rightly read in 

 the spirit of modern scientific criticism, 

 they tell interesting stories and contain val- 

 uable instruction. Scientific men do not 

 appeal to historj^ for the truths of science 

 about the objective world. From the be- 

 ginning of culture to the present time man 

 has interpreted the external world some- 

 times truthfully, sometimes erroneously. 

 That which is true remains, that which is 

 error dies. Yet ever in recording error 

 something of value has been preserved, for 

 these errors reveal the development of mind 

 and exhibit the methods by which the facts 

 of nature have been interpreted from time 

 to time. 



But more ; that which the writers of the 

 books of the ages sought to teach is one 

 thing; that which they unconsciously taught 

 is another. In the telling of an event of 

 history sometliing more becomes a matter 

 of record, for a statement may contain many 

 facts, though the author purposel}' or uncon- 

 sciously sought to propagate a lie. If we 



read of an armj^ sailing in a fleet of vessels 

 to pursue a predatory war, the item of hLs- 

 torj^ may be ti'ue or false, but unconsciously- ' 

 the writer in making his statement records 

 many facts of value about the time in whicli 

 he "ttTites. He may trutlifully explain arts, 

 habits, customs or institutions. In all of 

 these ancient writings something of value is 

 stored. Many of the earlier writings are in 

 poetic form, and in these and others the 

 ostensible subject-matter may be mji:hical. 

 Everywhere we find exclamatory and emo- 

 tional passages informed with the mysticism 

 and ignorance of the age, but these mj'ths 

 and mystical hymns and devout praj'ers i-e- 

 veal to scientific criticism a world of mean- 

 ing relating to the history of opinions. So 

 the writings of antiquity are held to be of 

 profound interest and importance when used 

 in the proper manner. Science does not 

 appeal to Ai-istotle as an authority on the 

 constitution of the mind, for he supposed 

 the brain to be a refi-igerator for the blood, 

 but it appeals to Aristotle's ideas of the con- 

 stitution of the mind for the purpose of ex- 

 hibiting the state of thought to which he 

 had arrived and of illustrating the evolution 

 of philosophj'. Science does not appeal to 

 Homer as authority on the nature of the 

 gods and the constitution of the earth as 

 ruled by these gods, for he thought that tlie 

 winds were kept in caves and transported 

 in sacks, but from Homer it learns how the 

 powers of nature were personified and how 

 these personages as gods were supposed to 

 take part in the affairs of mankind at the 

 time Homer ^vl■ote. Science does not appeal 

 to the novels of Plato for the piirpose of dis- 

 covering the best forms of institutions, 

 though he elaborated his opinions with lit- 

 erary charm in ' The Republic,' but it does 

 appeal to Plato to discover how the best 

 minds of his age theoretically solved the 

 problems of government in his time. Science 

 does not appeal to the writings of Confucius 

 or the Buddhistic scriptures for the purpose 



