New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-12-01
ART AND SCIENCE.

AHT AND
There seems hardly a branch of human thought
or activity that is not affected by the progress
of scientific inquiry. AS we get control of agen-
cies by u knowledge of their laws, and az it is
the office of science TO determine what those
laws are, it becomes our guide from the obscur-
ity of blind and doubtful practice upward to an
exact knowledge of principles and correspond
ing increase of power.
There is prevailing notion that science con-
Stitutes body of knowledge by itself-peculiar,
independent, not vtaly related to common
knowledge, and which may be pursued or passed
by at the option of the student. 1t is supposed
that, in entering upon scientific study, we leave
the domain of common thought and enter for
eign province of new and rigid methods, which are
almost napplicable and worthless in the walks of
common life. This is a very grave error. Science
and the positive knowledge of the uncultured are
not radically and essentially difierent they can
not be separated in nature; one is but the e1-
banded and perfected form of the other. The
same faculties that are involved in the simplest
concerns of common life are called into progress
siyely higher and more systematic exercise in the
ascending course of science. The commonest
actions of daily life involve the regular play
of the mental mechanism; facts are OBJ
served, evidence weighed, differences drawn,
and the general success which follows shows
that the operations have been properly
performed. There is no true definition of
| science that does not make it a living outgrOwth
| of common knowledge. If We say with Herschel
| -. l.I,, aaf,n bo1
Ideally arranged and digested so as to be OBJ
"tainabe BY one," We cannot deny that all
knowledge is organized, and systematic to
| greater or less degree. If We regard science as
such an acquaintance with the order of nature
| as will enable us to fOretell occurrences-such
| familiarity with her reguarities az will enable
| us to see beforehand and predict in what
times, places and conditions, effects will take
| place-that is, prerisiOH-still, it will be found
that much of ordinary knowledge partakes of this
| quality The earliest lesson of the child is that
one thing follows another in inyariabe sequence;
that water will extingIish fire, that pain will
follow burning, and night succeed day; while in
| predicting an eclipse the astronomer only rises
to q larger perception of the same inmuta5le order
1
| spring from the same root, and differ only in the
degree of growth. But while the wcultivated
mind only the simple, obvious relations of
| Oljoots and occurrences, il is the business of
science to unfold ana rAtond them. The child
knows just as Well as the philosopher that the
| smoke from the fire il il kndling will ascend
| that the fire will consume the fuel and
| tlp hnil
| Further and closer attention, taking the
form Of observations, experiments and rea-
sOning extends these perceptions; it is discovered
that heat disturbs the equilibrium of the
| atmosphere and thus causes the smoke to rise;
| that an element of the air enters into chemical
union with the fuel, producing cOmbustion that
there il no real destruction of matter, but only
| change of its form; that the chemical action
will give rise to heat which will be propagated
by conducton through the iron, by convection
through the water, and by radiation through the
Dir. The germ of positive knowledge in the
common mind, thus expanding into the recog-
nized scientific form, evolves into still higher
maturity. We have first, certainty; then, COM
pleteness. First, the kind OF phenomena which
will take places then, their amount. In its high
est form, science advances to measurement. Ii
il first qualitative, then quanttatiye. To pur
sue the illustration already taken, not only will
the rareiacton of the air by heat cause the
smoke to rise, but in the last stage the odgM
and pressure of the air the rate of its expansion
BY heat. the amount of the ascensonal force aud
NM '""cL the chimney retards by friction, are
precisely determined, ANA h.v e-@@t quantity of
the upward movement, or the power OF draught,
is predicted Not only that oxygen combines
with the fuel, but exactly how much will be re-
quired to consume it, what quantity of heat will
be- generated, how much water boiled aud space