such of their
conclusions as are safe for you; and them we will advise you to believe.
To the scientific man, on the other hand, as often as anything is
discovered unpleasing to them, they will say, imperiously and e
cathedra--Your new theory contradicts the established facts of science.
For they will know well that whatever the men of science think of their
assertion, the masses will believe it; totally unaware that the speakers
are by their very terms showing their ignorance of science; and that what
they call established facts scientific men call merely provisional
conclusions, which they would throw away to-morrow without a pang were
the known facts explained better by a fresh theory, or did fresh facts
require one.

This has happened too often. It is in the interest of superstition that
it should happen again; and the best way to prevent it surely is to tell
the masses--Scientific method is no peculiar mystery, requiring a
peculiar initiation. It is simply common sense, combined with uncommon
courage, which includes uncommon honesty and uncommon patience; and if
you will be brave, honest, patient, and rational, you will need no
mystagogues to tell you what in science to believe and what not to
believe; for you will be just as good judges of scientific facts and
theories as those who assume the right of guiding your convictions. You
are men and women: and more than that you need not be.

And let me say that the man of our days whose writings exemplify most
thoroughly what I am going to say is the justly revered Mr. Thomas
Carlyle.

As far as I know he has never written on any scientific subject. For
aught I am aware of, he may know nothing of mathematics or chemistry, of
comparative anatomy or geology. For aught I am aware of, he may know a
great deal about them all, and, like a wise man, hold his tongue, and
give the world merely the results in the form of general thought. But
this I know; that his writings are instinct with the very spirit of
science; that he has taught men, more than any living man, the meaning
and end of science; that he has taught men moral and intellectual
courage; to face facts boldly, while they confess the divineness of
facts; not to be afraid of Nature, and not to worship nature; to believe
that man can know truth; and that only in as far as he knows truth can he
live worthily on this earth. And thus he has vindicated, as no other man
in our days has done, at once the dignity of