Established by Edward L. Youmans APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS VOL. LV MAY TO OCTOBER, 1899 NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. [Illustration: WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS.] APPLETONS' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. JULY, 1899. SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE BIBLE. BY THE REV. DAVID SPRAGUE, B. D. "Trained and organized common sense" is Professor Huxley's definition of science. There is probably no better. The popular mind persists in thinking that there is a wide difference between science and knowledge in general. Yes, there is a wide difference, but it is just the difference that there is between a trained and organized _body_ of men for the accomplishing of some great work, and a _crowd_ of men unorganized and undisciplined. What unscientific knowledge has accomplished may be roughly seen in the condition of savage races to-day; while the changes wrought by knowledge trained and organized, in enlarging the sum of knowledge, in extending men's power of perception, and in increasing the facilities not merely for living, but for living well, are changes in comparison with which all others recorded in history are trifling. It will be profitable for us, in order to get a clearer idea of scientific method, to trace as briefly as possible the history of science and the development of the scientific idea.