B23 522 1962 PREFACE "MAN may have at his fingers' ends all the accomplished results and all the current opinions of any one or of all the branches of science, and yet remain wholly unscientific in mind; but no one can have carried out even the humblest research without the spirit of science in some measure resting upon him. And that spirit may in part be caught even without entering upon an actual investigation in search of a new truth. The learner may be led to old truths, even the oldest, in more ways than one. He may be brought abruptly to a truth in its finished form, coming straight to it like a thief climbing over the wall; and the hurry and press of modern life tempt many to adopt this quicker way. Or he may be more slowly guided along the path by which the truth was reached by him who first laid hold of it. It is by this latter way of learning the truth, and by this alone, that the learner may hope to catch something at least of the spirit of the scientific inquirer. THREE hundred years ago a new method of acquiring knowledge was given to the world by Gilbert, in England, and by Galileo, in Italy. When this method was adopted by investigators, Physical Science was still in its infancy, while other branches of human knowledge, as Philosophy, Literature, and Art, had apparently reached their highest possible achievements. Since that time, the development of Physical Science * From the Presidential Address by Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., F.R.S., to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dover, Sept. 13, 1899. |
