[10] _Ethical Studies_, by F.H. Bradley, O.M., LL.D. (Glasgow), late
Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; second edition revised, with
additional notes by the Author. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1927.




III

REVOLUTIONS IN SCIENCE


Since the beginning of the twentieth century, science has gained notably
in expertness, and lost notably in authority. We are bombarded with
inventions; but if we ask the inventors what they have learned of the
depths of nature, which somehow they have probed with such astonishing
success, their faces remain blank. They may be chewing gum; or they may
tell us that if an aeroplane could only fly fast enough, it would get home
before it starts; or they may urge us to come with them into a dark room,
to hold hands, and to commune with the dear departed.

Practically there may be no harm in such a division of labour, the
inventors doing the work and the professors the talking. The experts may
themselves be inexpert in verbal expression, or content with stock
phrases, or profoundly sceptical, or too busy to think. Nevertheless,
skill and understanding are at their best when they go together and adorn
the same mind. Modern science until lately had realised this ideal: it was
an extension of common perception and common sense. We could trust it
implicitly, as we do a map or a calendar; it was not true for us merely in
an argumentative or visionary sense, as are religion and philosophy.