But what is the study of natural science? Practically
considered, viewed as one of the great moral activities of mankind, _the
study of science is a very beautiful and humane expression of a certain
exalted form of loyalty_. Science is, practically considered, the
outcome of the absolutely devoted labors of countless seekers for
natural truth. But how do we human beings get at what we call natural
truth? By observation--so men say--and by experience. But by whose
experience? By the united, by the synthesized, by the revised,
corrected, rationally criticized, above all by the common, experience of
many individuals. The possibility of science rests upon the fact that
human experience may be progressively treated so as to become more and
more an unity. The detached individual records the transit of a star,
observes a precipitate in a test tube, stains a preparation and examines
it under a microscope, collects in the field, takes notes in a
hospital--and loyally contributes his little fragment of a report to the
ideally unified and constantly growing totality called scientific human
experience.
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