nce,
according to its etymology, is simply knowledge. But usage has limited
its meaning, in the first place, not to the knowledge of facts or
phenomena, merely, but to their causes and relations. It was said of
old, "[Greek: hoti] scientiae fundamentum, [Greek: dioti] fastigium." No
amount of materials would constitute a building. They must be duly
arranged so as to make a symmetrical whole. No amount of disconnected
data can constitute a science. Those data must be systematized in their
relation to each other and to other things. In the second place, the
word is becoming more and more restricted to the knowledge of a
particular class of facts, and of their relations, namely, the facts of
nature or of the external world. This usage is not universal, nor is it
fixed. In Germany, especially, the word _Wissenschaft_ is used of all
kinds of ordered knowledge, whether transcendental or empirical. So we
are accustomed to speak of mental, moral, social, as well as of natural
science. Nevertheless, the more restricted use of the word is very
common and very influential. It is important that this fact should be
recognized. In common usage, a scientific man is distinguished specially
from a metaphysician. The one investigates the phenomena of matter, the
other studies the phenomena of mind, according to the old distinction
between physics and metaphysics. Science, therefore, is the ordered
knowledge of the phenomena which we recognize through the senses. A
scientific fact is a fact perceived by the senses. Scientific evidence
is evidence addressed to the senses. At one of the meetings of the
Victoria Institute, a visitor avowed his disbelief in the existence of
God. When asked, what kind of evidence would satisfy him? he answered,
Just such evidence as I have of the existence of this tumbler which I
now hold in my hand. The Rev. Mr. Henslow says, "By science is meant the
investigation of facts and phenomena recognizable by the senses, and of
the causes which have brought them into existence."[40] This is the main
root of the trouble. If science be the knowledge of the facts perceived
by the senses, and scientific evidence, evidence addressed to the
senses, then the senses are the only sources of knowledge. Any
conviction resting on any other ground than the testimony of the senses,
must be faith. Darwin admits that the contrivances in nature may be
accounted for by assuming that they are due to design on the part of
God. But, he s