364 the president's address. 



and might have been construed to include much that is now brought 

 under the head of mental and moral science. It meant all science 

 that is not supernatural, that is, all knowledge that is not obtained by 

 revelation from the Deity or by occult dealings with the devil and 

 his agents. It is used in this sense in the charter incorporating the 

 Royal Society granted about the beginning of Charles II.'s reign. 

 The reason of the change in the meaning of the term is to be found 

 in the fact that since that date the progress of physical science has 

 been much greater than that of mental or moral science. In the 

 same way and for the same reason the generic term, science, has 

 come to be commonly used in the specific sense of physical science. 

 There is a latent popular disbelief in the existence of any science 

 except physical science. 



There is no race of mankind since history began that is not, and 

 has not been, in possession of some of the facts on which the various 

 physical sciences are based. But progress in physical science depends 

 not so much on capacity for collecting facts as on ability to discover 

 the laws of facts, and this ability has never been manifested to any 

 considerable extent except during the last three centuries and a half, 

 and then only in the limited part of the earth's surface occupied by 

 the civilized European nations. The ancient Greeks, indeed, whose 

 vigour of intellect led them to attempt every department of inquiry, 

 paid great attention to the physical sciences, but their progress was 

 not at all commensurate with the amount of effort they put forth. 

 We have accounts which show that they laid siege to the secrets of 

 nature for about 800 years, or from the time of Thales, about 600 

 years before, to that of Ptolemy, the astronomer, about 200 years 

 after Christ ; but during all this time they did not succeed in estab- 

 lishing one important physical law. It is true that some Greek 

 astronomers broached the idea that the earth is round, and the sun 

 the centre of the system of worlds to which the earth belongs ; but 

 not only were these views not established, the contrary notions pre- 

 vailed. The Ptolemaic system, which obtained universal acceptance 

 until the 16th century, made the sun revolve around the earth. 

 Archimedes, indeed, discovered the laws of the equilibrium of fluids, 

 but he did not succeed in so establishing them as to make them a 

 part of the common mental property of mankind. 



The failure of the Hellenic intellect in this department appears to 

 have been due to the adoption of a wrong method. In modern times 



