the air for the pure joy of living) and of passive submission (as when one basks idly in the summer sun); but whenever it aimed at accomplishing anything it would turn naturally to the processes of productive-consummatory art. Play and art between them would guarantee a good life.

REFERENCES

1 W. F. Dearborn, The Psychology of Reading, An experimental study of the reading pauses and movements of the eye. Arch. of Philos., Psych., and Sci. Methods, No. 4 (March, 1906).

150.

2 Max Eastman, Enjoyment of Poetry (N. Y., Scribner's, 1913), 74.

Osvald Sirén, Essentials in Art (London, Lane, 1920), 5.

Clive Bell, Art (N. Y., Stokes, 1913), 64–65.

Josef Strzygowski, The origin of Christian art, Burl. Mag., Vol. 20 (1911-12),

• Sirén, 73-74.

7 F. M. Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy, A study in the origins of western speculation (N. Y., Longmans, Green, 1912).

Iliad, Book I, end; trans. by Lang, Leaf, and Myers (London, Macmillan, 1911). 'Alessandro della Seta, Religion and Art, A study in the evolution of sculpture, painting, and architecture. Trans. by M. C. Harrison (London, Unwin, 1914), esp. 374-375.

10 Exodus, Chap. 20, verse 4.

11 Strzygowski, 150.

12 S. Reinach, Apollo, An illustrated manual of the history of art throughout the ages. Trans. by F. Simmonds (new ed., N. Y., Scribner's, 1909), 124.

13 William Zorach, The new tendencies in art, The Arts, Vol. 2 (1921-22), 13; W. H. Wright, Modern Painting, Its tendency and meaning (N. Y., Lane, 1915), 18-19.

14 Edward Bullough, Mind and medium in art, Brit. Journ. of Psych., Vol. 11 (1920-21), 28.

15 For a clear presentation of the nature of our visual stimuli, see H. C. Warren, Human Psychology (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1919), 160–183.

16 G. L. Raymond, The Essentials of Esthetics in music, poetry, painting, sculpture, and architecture (3 ed., N. Y. Putnam's, 1921), 371–372.

17 Sirén, 38.

18 See Adolf Hildebrand, The Problem of Form in Painting and Sculpture. Trans. by Max Meyer and R. M. Ogden (N. Y., Stechert, 1907), esp. Chap. I.

19 Hildebrand, 41.

20 Zorach, 10.

21 Guy de Maupassant, Introd. to Pierre et Jean.

22 Charles Marriott, Modern Movements in Painting (London, Chapman and Hall, 1920), 1.

23 T. E. Hulme, Speculations, Essays on humanism and the philosophy of art (N. Y., Harcourt, Brace, 1924), 196.

24 Bell, 40.

25 Bullough, 36.

28 Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science. Trans. by G. B. Halsted (N. Y.,

Science Press, 1921), 382-394 (Book I, Chap. 3, of Science and Method). The quotation is from pp. 387-388.

"Graham Wallas, The Art of Thought (N. Y., Harcourt, Brace, 1926)—a book which appeared after the above had been written-offers valuable corroboration of the position I have elaborated.

28

Roger Fry, Vision and Design (N. Y., Brentano's, n. d.), 96.

29 Reinach 1-2.

30 J. McN. Whistler, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, as pleasingly exemplified in many instances, wherein the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasperated, have been prettily spurred on to unseemliness and indiscretion, while overcome by an undue sense of right (London, Heinemann, 1890), 139.

31 Cf. A. C. Barnes, The Art in Painting (N. Y., Harcourt, Brace, 1926). 32 Fry, 30.

33 C. K. Ogden, I. A. Richards, and James Wood, The Foundations of Aesthetics (London, Allen and Unwin, 1922), 39.

34 Quoted in Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1923), 321-322.

35 H. S. Lauzfield, The Esthetic Attitude (N. Y., Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920), 60.

36 John Dewey, Experience and Nature (Chic., Open Court, 1925), 361, 364–365. See the whole of Chapter 9, which was extremely helpful in enabling me to arrive at the point of view stated above. The first sentence of the passage quoted (as well as some others in the chapter) suggest a disparagement of play that I do not share. 37 Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, Cubism (London, Unwin, 1913), 24-25. 38 Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 4, Lines 90-93.

39 Bell, 25, 102.

40 Sidney Colvin, Fine Art, Ency. Brit. (11 ed.), Vol. 10, 356.

41 Sidney Colvin, Art, Ency. Brit. (11 ed.), Vol. 2, 660.

42 George Santayana, Reason in Art (N. Y., Scribners, 1905), 32–33.

43 Santayana, 33.

44 Santayana, 24.

45 Dewey, 369.

Chapter XVII

SCIENCE

Science a historical phenomenon

Obvious difficulties beset the study of science as a cultural phenomenon, for to many it is the chief flower and glory of our life. The nature and significance of science cannot be discussed with the same calm interest that one might conceivably employ in analyzing the scholastic philosophy, the Greek view of the state, or the religious notions of the Blackfoot Indians. We are easily tempted to credit science with all certain control over truth, in our zeal forgetting that there exist, today as always, other avenues to valid certainty; and we often speak of the impartiality, thoroughness, and carefulness of the scientific investigator as if he alone among men possessed these traits, thereby doing great injustice to the many individuals in all ages who have striven valiantly, and with some success, to attain these rare qualities. Science, it cannot be too often repeated, is distinguished from other human activities by its cultural or institutional features by its methods and procedures, rather than by its graces of spirit or absolute validity. It is true, no doubt, that modern science has a magnificent and uplifting tradition behind it, but this fact makes it only the more necessary, for the purposes of understanding, to study it as a portion of the culture pattern. The scientific temper of mind is itself the product of a long period of indoctrination and habituation, and to be appreciated must be seen as the end result of training rather than as an ethical quality possessed out of hand. Personal aptitude is, of course, essential to scientific success, but no amount of honesty, open-mindedness, persistence, etc., apart from the scientific tradition could hope to add much to the sum of scientific knowledge.*

* F. M. Cornford in discussing Thucydides points out that he could not possibly entertain "a scientific view of history." "Rather he took the view of one who, having an admirably scientific temper, lacked the indispensable aid of accumulated and

To trace the history of science, showing at the same time when every prominent feature of the modern enterprise first became culturally significant and in just what respects it depended upon and grew out of human nature, would indeed be a fascinating undertaking. We shall have to content ourselves here with the more modest task of describing a few of the features of contemporary scientific activity. It is important to remember, however, that science has had a history. In its modern form, it has grown up since the middle ages-Roger Bacon, a 13th-century contemporary of the great medieval theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, was perhaps the earliest of its prophets, in that he advocated the joint use of the experimental and the mathematical methods. It was hardly before the 16th or 17th century-in the great days of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Harvey, Boyle, and Huygens-that the new endeavor was thoroughly established. Modern science was not an entirely new development, however. It owes a heavy debt to the Greek mathematicians and investigators whose activity centered around Alexandria in Egypt during the three or four hundred years before and after the beginning of the Christian era. Of these Hellenistic scientists perhaps the best known are Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy, but there was a host of others, and their work provided a great mine of suggestion and inspiration for the early fathers of modern science. Even when the modern scientists found it necessary to attack the Alexandrians (as when Copernicus offered his heliocentric theory in place of Ptolemy's geocentric hypothesis), they must often have felt that they were bound more closely to these ancients in interests and in fundamental approach to nature than they were to the philosophical theologians of their own day.

systematic knowledge, and of the apparatus of scientific conceptions, which the labour of subsequent centuries has refined, elaborated, and distinguished. Instead of this furniture of thought, to the inheritance of which every modern student is born, Thucydides possessed, in common with his contemporaries at Athens, the cast of mind induced by an early education consisting almost exclusively in the study of the poets. No amount of hard, rational thinking-an exercise which Thucydides never intermitted-could suffice to break up this mould, in an age when science had as yet provided no alternative system of conception." 1

Science has not retained precisely the same attitudes and aims throughout its history. Like all living things, it has been subject to the law of change. Some features of its development will become apparent in the course of this chapter. Nor has science always and everywhere enjoyed the high prestige which is today its portion. Even at the present time, although nearly every one is deeply influenced by its existence in our culture, and although many are aware of this fact, few persons possess in any high degree the scientific temper of mind. In its earlier days science was made the butt of many a barb of satire from literary man and cleric, and even today not a few artists, poets, and divines view its achievements with ill-concealed alarm as a direct attack upon beliefs they hold dear. What the members of other cultures are likely to think of science is beautifully indicated by the following letter, which was written by a Turkish cadi in answer to a request for certain statistical data: 4

My Illustrious Friend, and Joy of my Liver!

The thing you ask of me is both difficult and useless. Although I have passed all my days in this place, I have neither counted the houses nor inquired into the number of the inhabitants; and as to what one person loads on his mules and the other stows away in the bottom of his ship, that is no business of mine. But, above all, as to the previous history of this city, God only knows the amount of dirt and confusion that the infidels may have eaten before the coming of the sword of Islam. It were unprofitable for us to inquire into it.

O my soul! O my lamb! seek not after the things which concern thee not. Thou camest unto us and we welcomed thee: go in peace.

Of a truth thou hast spoken many words; and there is no harm done, for the speaker is one and the listener is another. After the fashion of thy people thou hast wandered from one place to another, until thou art happy and content in none. We (praise be to God) were born here, and never desire to quit it. Is it possible, then, that the idea of a general intercourse between mankind should make any impression on our understandings? God forbid!

Listen, O my son! There is no wisdom equal unto the belief