NATURAL SALVATION. 



THE MESSAGE OF SCIENCE. 



TT is a part of the unwritten code of science that the 

 investigator shall avoid a priori conclusions, look 

 coldly upon theory, and be wary of hypothesis. In a 

 word, that he shall devote himself patiently to the acquisi- 

 tion of data, be content to collect facts, and live abstinent 

 of the ever-present human weakness to play the rol^ of 

 prophet. 



Nothing, indeed, so surely distinguishes the man of 

 science from the charlatan as his attitude toward theory 

 and his caution in presenting conclusions. A single page, 

 often a single paragraph, of the article, or the book of a 

 writer on scientific subjects, enables us to judge all too 

 accurately of the value, or lack of value, of his entire 

 effort ; and, generally speaking, the verdict turns on the 

 care with which he draws conclusions from data. 



Science has endured so much of premature vaticination 

 that its best friends and exponents have come to regard 

 all that sort of thing with marked hostility, as detrimental 

 to true progress. There is a disposition to put injudicious 



