564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE UNDEELYING FACTS OF SCIENCE 



Bx ALFRED SANG 



PAEIS 



SCIENCE originated in the temple; for ages it remained as a mass 

 of detached observations floating in mysticism. The civilization 

 of Greece gave us the broad lines of many of the sciences, but the con- 

 finement of knowledge to monasteries, the enslavement of the human 

 mind and the suppression of the wisdom of the ancients during the 

 dark middle ages, deferred the rise of science until within compara- 

 tively recent times. From mysticism science has gradually drifted 

 into agnosticism; mysticism cramped the work of the investigator; 

 agnosticism lays no restraint whatever on his mental ambitions. The 

 suspension of judgment on all matters unproven has helped in mighty 

 measure to make theory the indispensable weapon of the scientist in 

 attacking unsolved problems. 



The Value of Theory 



Theory, based on observation, is an accepted factor of inquiry, and 

 the temporary acceptance of a theory serves as a scaffolding in the 

 building up of knowledge; it is necessary to the work of correlating 

 facts and to train the mind for the discovery of new facts. When we 

 find our theories checked and kept within certain definite bounds, we 

 can assume that we have found the measure of our ignorance and 

 that the truth lies somewhere within the compass of these theories. 

 If a theory is not a logical deduction from facts it should be called a 

 hypothesis. 



Nothing has created more prejudice, and thereby done more harm 

 to theory as an instrument of progress, than the easy acceptance by the 

 general public of all novel and sensational theories as proven facts if 

 consecrated by the daily newspapers and the magazines. From the 

 husk of the acorn an oak is postulated, although it may be rotten at the 

 core and worthless. But we must theorize because we are built that 

 way. As Tyndall once said : 



Man is prone to idealization. He can not accept as final the phenomena 

 of the sensible world, but looks behind that world into another which rules the 

 sensible one. 



The Limits of Conception" 



In scientific speculation, it is essential that we lose all sense of 

 proportion, of time and of space. No dimension must appear impos- 



