Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

DEGENERATION:

A CHAPTER IN DARWINISM

It is the misfortune of those who study that branch of science which our President has done so much to advance I mean the science of living things-that they are not able, in the midst of a vast assembly, to render visible to all eyes the actual phenomena to which their inquiries are directed. Whilst the physicist and the chemist are able to make evident to the senses of a great meeting the very things of which they have to tell, the zoologist cannot hope ever to share with those who form his audience the keen pleasure of observing a new or beautiful organism; he cannot demonstrate by means of actual specimens the delicate arrangements of structure which it is his business to record, and upon which he bases his conclusions. It is for this reason that he who would bring to the notice of laymen some matter which at the moment is occupying the attention of biological students, must appear to be unduly devoted to speculation-hypothesis-to support which he cannot produce the facts themselves but merely the imperfect substitutes afforded by pictures. It is perhaps not altogether a matter for regret that there should be in

one great branch of science, as there is in biology, so very marked a disproportion between the facilities for demonstrating facts and the general interest attaching to the theories connected with those facts. We may be thankful that at the present day we are not likely, in the domain of biology, to make the mistake (which has been made under other circumstances) of substituting the mere inspection and cataloguing of natural objects for that more truly scientific attitude which consists in assigning the facts which come under our observation to their causes, or, in other words, to their places in the order of nature. Though we may rightly object to the attempt which is sometimes made to decry the modern teachings of biology as not being "exact science," yet we may boldly admit the truth of the assertion that we biologists are largely occupied with speculations, hypotheses, and other products of the imagination. All true science deals with speculation and hypothesis, and acknowledges as its most valued servant-its indispensable ally and helpmeet -that which our German friends1 call "Phantasie " and we "the Imagination." Our science, biology, is not less exact-our conclusions are no less accurate because they are only probably true. They are "probably true" with a degree of probability of which we are fully aware, and which is only somewhat less than the probability attaching to the conclusions of other sciences which are commonly held to be "exact."

These remarks are addressed to an Association for 1 See Note A.

the advancement of science-of science which flourishes and progresses by the aid of suppositions and the working of the imagination. The Association has been holding its annual sitting in various parts of the British Islands for more than thirty years, and yet it is still a very common and widely spread notion that science, that is to say, true science according to those who hold the notion, does not countenance hypotheses, and sternly occupies itself with the exact record of fact. On the other hand, there are many persons who run to an opposite extreme, and call by the name of science any fanciful attempt to deal with or account for a certain class of phenomena. The words "science" and "scientific" are used so vaguely and variously that one might almost come to the conclusion that it would be well for our Association to plainly state what is that thing for the advancement of which its meetings are held. I cannot venture to speak in the name of my colleagues; and no doubt a review of the work done by the Association would most fitly explain what that body understands by the word "science." At the same time it is permissible to take this opportunity of briefly stating what science is and what it is not, so far as I am able to judge of the fitting use of the word.

Science is certainly not any and every kind of knowledge. Knowledge of literature, of the beautiful things which have been written or otherwise produced by human ingenuity, is not science. Knowledge of the various manufacturing processes in use by civilised men is not science; nor knowledge of the names of

the stars, or of the joints of a beetle's leg. Science cannot be identified with knowledge of any particular class of objects, however detailed that knowledge may be. It is a common mistake to consider all knowledge of raw products, of living objects or other natural objects, as necessarily "science." The truth is, that a man may have great knowledge of these things as so many facts, and yet be devoid of "science." And, on the other hand, that which is properly called science embraces not only such subject-matter as that just alluded to, but also may find its scope in the study of language, of human history, and of the workings of the human mind.

The most frequent and objectionable misuse of the word "science" is that which consists in confounding science with invention-in applying the term which should be reserved for a particular kind of knowledge to the practical applications of that knowledge. Such things as electric lighting and telegraphs, the steamengine, gas, and the smoky chimneys of factories, are by a certain school of public teachers, foremost among whom is the late Oxford Professor of Fine Art, persistently ascribed to science, and gravely pointed out as the pestilential products of a scientific spirit. They are, in fact, nothing of the kind. American inventors

and electric lamps, together with all the factories in Sheffield, might be obliterated without causing a moment's concern to a single student of science. It is of the utmost importance for the progress and wellbeing of science that this should be understood; that the eager, practical spirit of the inventor who gains

large pecuniary rewards by the sale of his inventions should not be confounded with what is totally different and remote from it, namely, the devoted, searching spirit of science, which, heedless of pecuniary rewards, ever faces nature with a single purpose-to ascertain the causes of things. It seems to me impossible to emphasise too strongly in such a place and in such a meeting as this, that Invention is widely separate from, though dependent on Science. Invention is worldly-wise, and despises the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. She awaits the discoveries of Science, in order to sell them to civilisation, gathering the golden fruit which she has neither planted nor tended. Invention follows, it is true, the footsteps of Science, but at a distance: she is utterly devoid of that thriftless yearning after knowledge, that passionate desire to know the truth, which causes the unceasing advance of her guide and benefactress.

We may, it seems to me, say that of all kinds and varieties of knowledge that only is entitled to the name "science" which can be described as Knowledge of Causes, or Knowledge of the Order of Nature. It is this knowledge to which the great founder of European science-Aristotle the Greek-pointed as true knowledge: τότε ἐπιστάμεθα ὅταν τὴν αἰτίαν εἴδωμεν. Science is that knowledge which enables us to demonstrate so far as our limited faculties permit, that the appearances which we recognise in the world around us are dependent in definite ways on certain properties of matter science is that knowledge which enables, or tends to enable us, to assign its true place in the

« AnteriorContinuar »