Page images
PDF
EPUB

time, which is more than can be said of most writers to-day.

We are often told that men of science should cultivate the art of literary expression, but the stronger necessity for literary men to have at least a nodding acquaintance with the outstanding facts of natural knowledge is overlooked. A well-known author has unkindly said, "The man of science appears to be the only man in the world who has something to say, and he is the only man who does not know how to say it." The retort invited by this remark is that the man of letters frequently has nothing to say, and he says it at great length. The first business of the man of science is to create new knowledge, and not necessarily to clothe his discoveries in a pleasing dress, though he may do so. The facts of science provide material upon which literary art may be exercised, but the two functions of exploration and fine expression are rarely found together.

The methods of accurate observation and cautious interpretation demanded of scientific investigators do not readily lend themselves to attractive description, and the results require more mental concentration to understand them than is usually demanded of a literary performance. A writer of romance can let his imagination have free play, but when natural occurrences enter into the story they should be presented accurately, if the material is to be used rightly. Nothing is easier than to be deceived by appearances, or to accept a belief without inquiry into its foundations; the scientific plan of asking for evidence, and of limiting statements to those for which good justification can be produced, is much more tiresome, yet it is the only way by which truth can be attained; and that after all is the highest aim.

CHAPTER VI

INQUIRY AND INTERPRETATION

Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed. Huxley. The philosophy of one century is the common-sense of the next. H. W. Beecher.

Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. St. Paul. For nothing is so productive of elevation of mind as to be able to examine methodically and truly every object which is presented to thee in life. Marcus Aurelius. The patient investigation and accurate methods required to obtain desired results in the school of experimental and technical science, cannot fail to impress, refine, and ennoble the characters of those who work in this direction. Sir Wm. Mather.

[ocr errors]

MANY people find satisfaction in the words of the preacher "there is no new thing under the sun ; they delight in tracing suggestions of modern scientific discoveries in the works of Greek, Roman and other philosophers, and in showing that classical literature contains all that is required for the making of a good citizen or for intellectual equipment. Well, in regard to logic, mathematics, metaphysical philosophy, jurisprudence, or any subject in which words or symbols make up the mosaic, and in ethical teaching, humanists are possibly right in attaching supreme importance to the thoughts and doctrines of other times. In observation also, and to some extent in mechanical

ingenuity, the works of many of the ancients command the esteem of the modern scientific world. What is peculiarly modern is the experimental investigation of natural phenomena; and the looking for mere rules of sequence in the phenomena rather than transcendental causes is of still more recent growth.

The art of observation and that of experimentation are very distinct. In the first case, the fact may either proceed from logical reasons or be mere good fortune; it is sufficient to have some penetration and the sense of truth in order to profit by it. But the art of experimentation leads from the first to the last link of the chain, without hesitation and without a blank, making successive use of Reason, which suggests an alternative, and of Experience, which decides on it, until, starting from a faint glimmer, the full blaze of light is reached. J. B. A. Dumas.

The merit of scientific observation lies in the direct appeal to Nature for truth instead of to authority. Whenever man has seen things for himself, and has not been content with vicarious observation, he has taken a decided step towards the emancipation of the human race from the trammels of traditional doctrine. But modern science demands something more than an open eye for its advancement; it requires the kinetic quality of mind that tests by experiment the things which might be, as well as observes things as they are.

The method which our race has found most effective in acquiring knowledge is by this time familiar to all men. It is the method of modern science that process which consists in an interrogation of Nature entirely dispassionate, patient, systematic; such careful experiment and cumulative record as can often elicit from her slightest indications her deepest truths. That method is now dominant throughout the civilised world; and although in many directions experiments may be difficult and dubious, facts rare and elusive, science works slowly on and bides her time-refusing to fall back upon tradition or to launch into speculation merely because strait is the gate which leads to valid discovery, indisputable truth. F. W. H. Myers.

Scientific observations of natural phenomena were recorded four thousand years or more ago, but recognition of the essential importance of experimental science of the modern type is only about three centuries old, though the method was adumbrated at an earlier epoch.

As an observer and a recorder Aristotle surveyed the whole realm of Nature in his works, and had familiar knowledge of a thousand varied forms of life. He brought together an immense amount of accurate observation and examined it with skilful reasoning, but he was often led astray by pre-conceived ideas, and based his conclusions upon reports which were more curious than important. But he and other ancient philosophers particularly lacked the scientific method of inquiry by experiment. It is true that Pythagoras, in the sixth century B.C., is credited with the use of monochord, or single stretched string, of which the length and tension can be varied, to determine by experiments the law that the pitch of a note is inversely proportional to the length of the vibrating string, and to discover numerical relations between the various notes on the musical scale. It is also true that Ptolemy, in the second century A.D., determined by experiment the refraction or amount of deviation which a beam of light undergoes, from its original direction, when passing from air into water, or into glass. But these determinations, with the work in acoustics by Pythagoras, and Galen's proofs, by the dissections of animals, of the relation between the brain and the nerves, represent the sum total of experimental research in Greek science.

There was an interval of a thousand years between Ptolemy's investigations in optics and the experiments made by Alhazen, whose substantial studies of reflection, refraction, vision, the human eye and related subjects

are the outstanding contributions of Arabia to physical science in a period during which the Arabs were in advance of the whole world in intellectual and industrial activity. It was chiefly upon the researches of Alhazen that Roger Bacon based the principles of optics expounded by him. This Franciscan Friar of the thirteenth century anticipated many later discoveries in physics and chemistry, and though he did not actually discover the telescope, he described in detail, in his Opus Majus (1276), the properties of lenses and how they could be used to make objects appear nearer, as in the case of a simple magnifying glass.

Adelard of Bath, who translated Euclid's Elements of Geometry from Arabic into Latin early in the twelfth century-four hundred years before the Greek text was recovered; Robert Grosseteste, the illustrious Bishop of Lincoln and author of an encyclopaedic Compendium Scientiarum; Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt, of whom Bacon said: "Through experiment he gains knowledge of natural things, medical, chemical, indeed of everything in the heavens or earth," all preceded Bacon in their scientific observations and writings and influenced his thought. He was not really a great experimenter, and his positive additions to natural knowledge are few, but he was one of the first philosophers to insist upon the value of experiment in scientific investigation. "We have," he said, "three means of knowledge-authority, reasoning, experiment. Authority has no value unless its reason be shown; it does not teach: it only calls for assent." Again "Armed with experiment and calculation, science must not be content with facts, though these may have their utility; it seeks truth; it wants to find. out the laws, the causes-canones, universales regulae." In the bold appeal which Roger Bacon made to experi

« PreviousContinue »