CHAPTER I

HISTORY OF SCIENCE

The romantic history of science shows how the discoveries of the greatest human minds, slowly operating since the remotest times, have made possible our present-day civilization. Few studies are worthy of greater attention; no other department of knowledge affords more real pleasure. Whoever clearly understands the history of science possesses intellectual advantages over those who are ignorant of the causes that have led to the establishment of the basic principles of our modern industrial arts and applied sciences. Standards of comparison are furnished by the history of science which illuminate many of the wonders of to-day, develop alertness of mind, and afford a never-ending train of suggestions for thought.

The term science means knowledge. It was derived from the language of the Romans. It is well to have a clear idea of the meaning of the word. Everyone knows that it has to do with certain kinds of knowledge; few know the particular kinds it embraces. It does not mean the mere knowledge of a single fact. It does not mean a knowledge of something which has to be done. Long before science was born, our early ancestors observed many isolated physical, philosophical, and religious facts. They knew that day followed night, that the stars moved, that every day the sun progressed over the arch of the heavens. Such facts did not constitute science.

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. Its province is enormous; its subdivisions are limitless.

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 not the result of scientific analysis, and there is no tangible, communicable residuum.

There could be no science if men did not discover principles of knowledge which can be communicated to, and made available for use by others. Scientific knowledge must be stripped of all traces of emotionalism and personal convictions. True science is, therefore, depersonalized knowledge.

The history of science shows how our exact knowledge has been developed along irregular paths but with progressive advances. There have been long periods during which little apparent progress was accomplished, which have been succeeded by others made memorable by brilliant discoveries.

We must constantly bear in mind that many of the truths generally accepted to-day were doubtful or novel theories at some previous period. The history of science shows the enormous mental effort expended in testing and developing what now appear to us as commonplace truths.

Basic principles like those of algebra, geometry, and the planetary motions were tested during several thousand years before they were finally accepted as true.

The human intellect at the dawn of history was similar to what it is to-day. But it was not exercised as we exercise ours because it did not have adequate materials and opportunities. For the same reason science made slower progress in early times than it does now. Progress is cumulative. Each advance helps that which follows. The functions of a scientist are to struggle against individual views, and to provide an explanation of phenomena which may be accepted as true by other minds. Ascertained facts must be classified and then sequence and significance recognized from an unbiased viewpoint.

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. 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.

We may now see how it is that the boundaries of any science are merely approximate. The general grouping of the sciences is likewise approximate. The first large group includes the abstract, or formal, sciences such as mathematics and logic. The other great group comprises the concrete sciences dealing with phenomena as contrasted with formal relationships. Chemistry, biology, physics, psychology, and sociology belong to the concrete group.

At the beginning of history man is discovered observing the great phenomena of Nature and struggling to learn their laws and to explain them. Religion is both emotional and intellectual, and through these qualities it attracted primitive man while he was attempting to gather light on the riddles of the world. It was through religion that science was born.

Recent researches into primitive beliefs have shown in a surprising manner the psychological unity of man. In all parts of the world, in all periods of history, and under all conditions, the minds of men, in their natural reactions against the basic factors of existence, operate in similar ways. There is a remarkable resemblance in the mental processes of men. The laws of thought appear to work automatically in all men. The minds of prehistoric people worked like those of men to-day. The impressions of the senses appear to be interpreted in similar ways by all peoples. Here is the explanation of the numerous resemblances we find in national histories, national folk lore, and national religions. They differ much in innumerable details, but possess many resemblances in their great fundamental conceptions. Normal man has always been religious. Mankind has always assumed definite attitudes toward the universe and this has resulted in the universality of religion.

Early men the world over appear to have been as eager to learn the keys to the riddles of the universe as was the boy Longfellow sang about in the following stanzas:

Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying: "Here is a story-book Thy Father has written for thee."

"Come wander with me," she said, "Into regions yet untrod; And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God."

And he wandered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse, Who sang to him night and day The rhymes of the universe.

And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail, She would sing a more wonderful song, Or tell a more marvelous tale.

Modern science has developed from this instinctive human desire to read Nature's story-book and understand her marvelous tales.

Early struggles of mankind taught that human behavior must be regulated in accordance with rigid moral laws. This promoted the primitive social processes which were early concerned with religious beliefs as well as with magic and medicine. Two of the earliest beliefs universally accepted were that we possess souls and that our personality persists after death. These basic principles of faith have caused extremely beneficial results to follow in the development of knowledge.

Some of the American Indians and other primitive peoples of to-day still live in the belief that the heavenly bodies, the sky, sea, and earth, as well as plants, animals, and men, all belong to a vast system of all-conscious and interrelated life, in which the degrees of relationship are distinguished by the degrees of resemblance.

Religious beliefs were developed from struggles to conceive the inconceivable and discover the infinite. Religions led to studies of mysteries and ceremonies and rites. Magic developed and this also had its customs, dogmas, and rites. The difference between magic and religion was that the magician was consulted by his personal friends, whereas the holders of religious beliefs had a common bond uniting them in one strict form of worship. Magic was not systematized, while religion was a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, and chiefly to the regulation of moral concepts and conduct.

The intimate association of religion, magic, necromancy, and science continued until the early Greek era. There were many temples erected in Greece and dedicated to Æsculapius, the god of medicine. Cures were believed to be effected through the valuable offerings made to the god by patients and their friends. It was thought that the ways to health would be indicated to them by the god through dreams.

Recent investigations of the representative ceremonial rites of the aboriginal peoples of Australasia and of North and South America have yielded a remarkably rich fund of information on the causes and conditions which operated in prehistoric eras in developing the mental, moral, and physical sciences.

Some of the most romantic stories ever developed by the human intellect are to be found in recent scientific works dealing with the history and principles of the tribal customs, ceremonies, and religious rites of primitive peoples. The early chapters in the history of man's mental development and the evolution of science from distant origins in mystic forces, through magic and necromancy to religion and philosophy, must give abundant pleasure to all thoughtful persons by showing how it came that the high state of civilization now attained was brought about by slow processes, operating through immense periods of time and blossoming only during the past two or three thousand years. 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.