UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



birth of science began when men took up the experi- 

 mental way. 



Look into Plutarch's "Morals" and see some of 

 the questions that he and his fellows used to dis- 

 cuss at their debating clubs. They do not actually 

 discuss the question that stiU survives among 

 country people, "Why does the sunlight put out 

 the fire?" — a deception of the eye merely; but 

 many of their discussions were upon subjects that 

 a little experimentation would have settled at once. 

 Here are some of their questions : — 



Why sea-water will not put out fire? Why a deer 

 when it is taken sheds salt tears, and a boar sweet? 

 A wild fig being bound around a garden fig-tree 

 will keep the fruit from falling and promote its 

 ripening. Why does a deer bury its cast-off horns? 

 Why does a goat stop the entire herd by holding a 

 branch of sea-holly in its mouth? Why does dew 

 make fat people lean? Why does a vessel filled 

 with water weigh more in winter than in summer? 

 Why are waters hottest in the bottom of the sea? 

 (Because heat shuns cold and flees to the bottom.) 

 Why is the flesh of sheep bitten by wolves sweeter 

 than that of others? 



Such matters of dispute show the childish va- 

 garies of the human mind before the advent of the 

 scientific method. It was largely out of this frame 

 of mind that Christianity arose. The reports of its 

 miracles were accepted without question. When 

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