INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE - 1911 - CHAPTER I - THE SCIENTIFIC MOOD - For myself I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth as having. a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblance of things which is the chief point, and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship ship with Truth.-Fm. s BACON. Before Science-The Practical Mood-The Emotional Mood - The Scientific Mood contrasted with the Others-Adjustment of Moods-Characteristics of the Scientific Mood - A Psssion for Facts-Cautiousness of Statement–Clearness of Vision–Sense of the Inter-relatedness of Things-Culture of the Scientific Mood–Summary. BEFORE SCIENCE.-We do not know much that is quite certain in regard to our early ancestors, but it is safe to say that mans relations with Nature were for a long time predominantly practical. We may recall the vivid picture which Bschylus gives of primitive men-living in caves, without fire, without wood-work, without system, without seasons, without foresight, a dream life without science- And let me tell you, not as taunting men, But teaching you the intention of my gifts How, first, beholding they beheld in vain, And, hearing, heard not, but like shapes in dreams, Mixed all things wildly down the tedious time, Nor knew to build a house against the sun Withwicketed sides, nor any wood-work knew But lived like silly ants, beneath the ground, In hollow caves unsunned. There came to them No steadfast sign of winter, nor of spring Flower-perfumed, nor of summer full of fruit, But blindly and lawlessly they did all things, Until I taught them how the stars do rise And set in mystery, and devised for them Number, the inducer of philosophies, The synthesis of letters, and besides The artificer of all things, Memory That sweet muse-mother. In those early days the various moods that we are familiar with-such as the scientific, the artistic, and the philosophic–had not become defined off from an oppressive practical mood. Very gradually, however, Man got a firmer foothold in the struggle for existence, and was able to raise his head and look at the stars. He dis covered the year with its marvellous object-lesson of recurrent sequences-a discovery which was one of the first great steps towards science, and he became vividly aware that his race had a history. He had time, too, for a conscious enjoyment of Nature, which came to mean more and more to him. Here and there, perhaps, some began to ponder over the significance of their, experience…