vi THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

there be such a thing, can a knowledge of it be really

attainable by us?"

To this question the answer appears to be that some

groundwork of science there must be. For no one can

deny that science exists, and this is obtrusively evident in

our own time, when we are witnessing the closing days

of an age which has been conspicuous beyond all others

for scientific progress. Now, any science which we may

select for consideration will be found to consist of some

truths which are the results of other truths antecedently

ascertained, whether the latter have served as incentives

to more patient and careful observations and experiments,

or whether the antecedent truths have served as premisses

from which the newer truths have been logically inferred.

These primitive and fundamental truths of the science

selected, together with the efforts made to ascertain and

establish them, must be allowed to form the groundwork

of that particular science. And as every science must

possess such primitive and fundamental truths, there must

be a groundwork of science generally, even if it consists only

of a collection of all the fundamental truths of all the several

sciences.

But can there be one common groundwork for all the

sciences from Logic to Geology, however diverse may be their

several subject-matters? It might be supposed that such

there cannot be, the sciences being so numerous and diverse.

Nevertheless, there is one point which is common to them all.

However numerous and diverse the sciences may be, they all

agree in having been developed by one kind of energy,

namely, that of the human mind. And, indeed, after putting

on one side all the differences which have arisen from diversities

of culture (qualitative and quantitative), of energy, and of

industry, there is a general and fundamental unity in human

capacity. The sciences therefore being many and diverse,

there be such a thing, can a knowledge of it be really

attainable by us?"

To this question the answer appears to be that some

groundwork of science there must be. For no one can

deny that science exists, and this is obtrusively evident in

our own time, when we are witnessing the closing days

of an age which has been conspicuous beyond all others

for scientific progress. Now, any science which we may

select for consideration will be found to consist of some

truths which are the results of other truths antecedently

ascertained, whether the latter have served as incentives

to more patient and careful observations and experiments,

or whether the antecedent truths have served as premisses

from which the newer truths have been logically inferred.

These primitive and fundamental truths of the science

selected, together with the efforts made to ascertain and

establish them, must be allowed to form the groundwork

of that particular science. And as every science must

possess such primitive and fundamental truths, there must

be a groundwork of science generally, even if it consists only

of a collection of all the fundamental truths of all the several

sciences.

But can there be one common groundwork for all the

sciences from Logic to Geology, however diverse may be their

several subject-matters? It might be supposed that such

there cannot be, the sciences being so numerous and diverse.

Nevertheless, there is one point which is common to them all.

However numerous and diverse the sciences may be, they all

agree in having been developed by one kind of energy,

namely, that of the human mind. And, indeed, after putting

on one side all the differences which have arisen from diversities

of culture (qualitative and quantitative), of energy, and of

industry, there is a general and fundamental unity in human

capacity. The sciences therefore being many and diverse,