ASPECTS OF SCIENCE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE _By_ J. W. N. SULLIVAN LONDON RICHARD COBDEN-SANDERSON 17 THAVIES INN Copyright 1923 PREFACE The papers which make up this volume have been selected because, although they deal with different aspects of various scientific ideas, yet they do illustrate, more or less, one point of view. That point of view may be described, perhaps as æsthetic, but rather better as humanistic. Scientific ideas have a history; they arose to satisfy certain human needs; to see them in their context is to see them as part of the general intellectual and emotional life of man. What they exist to do they do better than does anything else, and the needs they satisfy are not peculiar to scientific specialists. These papers try to show one or two of the many reasons why, for people who are not specialists as well as for those who are, science may be interesting. J. W. N. SULLIVAN. CONTENTS PAGE THE INTEREST OF SCIENCE 9 A PHYSICIST ON PHYSICS 23 SCIENCE AND CULTURE 36 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 41 ASSUMPTIONS 49 ON LEARNING SCIENCE 72 THE ENTENTE CORDIALE 77 POPULAR SCIENCE 82 PATIENT PLODDERS 89 THE AMATEUR ASTRONOMER 95 SCIENTIFIC CITIZENS 100 THE SCEPTIC AND THE SPIRITS 105 THE SCIENTIFIC MIND 112 THE SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION 116 THEORIES AND PERSONALITIES 122 THE IDEAL SCIENTIFIC MAN 128 PARALLEL STRAIGHT LINES 133 THE NEW SCIENTIFIC HORIZON 139 THE HOPE OF SCIENCE 145 THE RETURN OF MYSTERY 151 MATHEMATICS AND MUSIC 159 HUMAN TESTIMONY 177 THE INTEREST OF SCIENCE I