Arthur Selwyn-Brown

“ Such treasures of knowledge and tonics to thought are scattered all through the volumes of this set, the purpose of whose publishers, editors, and writers has been to accumulate such things in small compass and in crystal clearness, for the use not only of those who, after their school days are over, still wish to keep abreast of the progress of science in all its branches—as everyone should strive to do in this most scientific of all ages—but also for those who have hitherto not had the time, or the opportunity, or perhaps even the desire, to make themselves at home in the house of science. ”

“ If it is the springtime, you may be interested by the sight of a tall, graceful tree, as lofty as a pine, and as straight in trunk, with many exquisite blossoms hanging from the pendulous stems on its great limbs, fifty or more feet above the ground, as if it were a flower garden in the air for the special delectation of the birds. Having never heard of a flowering tree outside the tropics, you feel a keen desire to know what this one is, and thus a way of introduction, founded on keen, personal interest, is opened for you to the science of botany. ”

“ Science is just as one and inseparable as life, or as an organic being, and its divisions no more imply lack of unity than do the various organs and limbs of an animal, or a tree, or the different structural parts of a building. Astronomy is not entirely independent of geology, nor geology of botany, nor botany of chemistry, nor any of these of physics, nor physics of electricity and magnetism, nor the last of physiology and medicine. ”

“ The dweller in the country is brought into closer association with the infinitely changing aspects of nature than the city dweller enjoys. The simplest incident in the life of a person living on a farm may be the beginning of a thread of connection leading, like the clue of a labyrinth, into the heart of some of the most marvelous departments of science, and resulting in a mental revolution for the fortunate person who follows out the clue under such guidance as these volumes afford. ”

“ That man must indeed be dull of intellect who does not feel a thrill of interest at the sight of these signs and inscriptions, written by the ancient hand of nature in the rocks, and telling, in language far more easily decipherable than the hieroglyphics of Egypt, the story of the gradual growth of this round planet on whose surface we are confined, like flies or ants, as it rotates and revolves in empty space, circling with us around a star, ninety-three million miles away, called the sun, which saw the birth of our world and has ever since kept it warmed and lighted with its rays. ”

“ You are still on the ground of science, and you are practically demonstrating the principles of another of its branches—the science of health, or hygiene, which is a part of the subject of medicine, taken in its broadest signification, for, as the volume on that subject will assure you, the greatest service that this science can render to mankind is in teaching us the laws of our physical existence, and indicating, directly or indirectly, how all the functions of the body may be kept in the best working order by proper attention and exercise. ”

“ Science takes no account of knowledge which is not exact. Many people acquire valuable information which they profitably use in business, but which they are unable to communicate or describe to others because they do not actually understand it.
Farmers and flower growers often possess important practical knowledge of facts which are embraced by the principles of the sciences of agriculture, botany, and biology. But their practical knowledge is not true science. It is rather like an artist's intuitive impulse. ”

“ It is unnecessary to speak of the immense importance to all human beings of a knowledge of the laws governing the manifestations of the mind, by taking advantage of which they may get the most out of themselves with the least loss of time and expenditure of effort.
Let us keep on further along the wonderful road of science on which your feet begin almost unknowingly to tread from the moment of your awakening, and which they follow, often just as unconsciously, until you fall asleep at the close of another day ”

“ After finishing your toilet, with all the suggestions and remembrances of chemical science that it has produced, you start to quicken the circulation of your blood by catching up a pair of dumb-bells, or Indian clubs, or by pulling elastic cords, or banging a leather ball with your fists, as if you meant to go in for the championship of the world. ”

“ And few persons can take a ride, or a walk, anywhere in city or country or park, without having attention attracted by some unknown flower or plant, or tree, and without becoming aware how much pleasure is lost, and how much useful knowledge missed, by lack of the easily acquired knowledge of these things, which anybody can have by giving to it only that amount of time which would otherwise be wasted almost as completely as if the eyes were kept closed and the mind dismissed from its home in the brain. ”

“ In any event, whether you drive your own car, or ride in one drawn by a motor or a locomotive engine, you are brought face to face with the science of physics, including, of course, not only mechanics, but also, in our own day, electricity and magnetism. ”

“ Geology, the Science of the Earth's Crust, or shell; which also deals with the various stratifications of the rocks, superposed one above another, and containing in the shape of fossils, and other marks, a wonderful record of the character and development of the living forms that have inhabited the earth during the long ages of the past. Of course some of the phenomena dealt with by geology are manifest on the earth's surface, and others, like volcanoes and earthquakes, hot springs and geysers, are partly subterranean and concealed from sight and partly evident by their effects on the surface. ”

“ Then, too, there are many persons who have no comprehension of the great and gratifying power that a knowledge of some of the elementary principles and formulas of science bestows upon anybody who may take the little trouble necessary to master them, a trouble that does not imply a long course of scientific study. The "man in the street," if he possesses these easy-working keys to knowledge, can verify for himself some of the calculations of scientists which, if he did not know how they were done, would always remain for him in the category of the mysterious achievements of genius. ”

“ The history of science is the written record of countless experiments, theories, and experiences of mankind which have been submitted to the tests of scientific methods.
While it is true that science embraces all knowledge its real scope is limited to knowledge which is reducible to laws and can be embodied in systems. [Pg 42] The human mind unites all knowledge by a single thread, but we have to chart and map it into larger and smaller divisions which we define by the methods, basic concepts, and plans used in developing them. ”

“ But this is only a beginning of the string of everyday incidents that are rendered curiously interesting as soon as their scientific relations and meanings become evident to you. Science is right at your elbow to raise questions and to answer them the moment you step out of bed, and your mind begins to work. ”

“ In those layers of rock in the railway cut you see the leaves of the book of geology, infinitely older than the oldest scripture from man's hands, and relating things that occurred in those far-off nights and mornings of time that flitted over the globe ages before the human stem had set off from the trunk of terrestrial life. ”

“ What we know as science began when man commenced to compare one fact with another, to classify phenomena, and to arrange his knowledge systematically. Order, method, system, are basic principles of science. The best description would, therefore, appear to be systematized knowledge of any kind which had been gained and verified by exact observation and correct thinking. The whole field of human knowledge is now methodically formulated and arranged into rational systems. Modern science may, therefore, be said to embrace all our exact knowledge. ”

“ A study of these stories cannot fail to show how intimately science has been associated with religion, why every normal individual is essentially religious, and why the continuation of our civilization, and the very existence of the human race, are absolutely contingent upon the recognition of the moral laws, in the future as in the past. The history of science establishes the fact that moral sanctions, which require religious ceremonies to keep them vital, are the essential bases of human progress. ”

“ The theory of the permanence of species was generally held by biologists before publication of Darwin's first great book. Darwin said that no naturalist of his time doubted the accuracy of the theory of the eternity of existing conditions and they refused to listen to his views regarding the mutability of species.
Darwin put forth the theory of organic evolution by natural selection and the survival of the fittest. The great beauty of this theory lies in its simplicity and its appeal to agencies which we can see in full operation every day and night. ”

“ It is noteworthy that the principle of relativity is usually invoked when conditions are unstable, when thought is confused, and when a period of readjustment is in progress. Thus the Einstein theory may be representative of present-day harmonies, but yet may prove, in the future, to have been merely a passing philosophic mood.
Bagehot, a shrewd observer, writing in 1868 about the changes wrought by Darwin's evolutionary theory, said: "There is scarcely a department of science or art which is the same, or at all the same, as it was fifty years ago. ”

“ PRELUDE TO MODERN SCIENCE—THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY When the eighteenth century opened science had begun to make men think, and the works of the great scientists had changed the trend of thought on all sides. Liberty of conscience, of worship, and of opportunity were demanded, as well as representative government, economic freedom, and individual equality before the law. Men wanted to be free agents. The philosophical writings of Berkeley, Locke, Hume, Spinoza, Voltaire, Rousseau, and others supplemented the books of the scientists and promoted rational thinking. ”

“ For city children and their elders, whose eyes are constantly greeted, not by hills, creeks, ponds, rivers, woods, and fields, but by sky-aspiring buildings, railroads elevated on stilts, multiple-decked suspension bridges, electric power houses, tunnels that form a second city underground, and the thousand marvels and splendors of electric illumination at night, the volumes on physics, mechanics, and electricity and magnetism have a more immediate interest and value. ”

“ Now, this subtle and exquisite science, often more poetic and mystic than scientific in its original character, presents itself in its more sober and practical dress to you as soon as, having finished your breakfast and prepared your bodily energies for the day's work, you begin to meditate on the problems of the day opening before you. ”