SCIENCE—AND COMMON-SENSE.

Forest and Bird, Issue 33, 1 June 1934, Page 13

SCIENCE—AND COMMON-SENSE.

Two Types

There is seience which includes the best elements of commonsense, and there is science which does not. There is science which looks into the heart of things, and does wonderful work for humanity. The real scientists in this field are humble. The more they increase their knowledge, the more they see the infinite scope for further learning. There is other science which is fussily superficial, pretentious, pompous, scornful of the “lay public.” Some of the students in the field do no more permanent good for the world than children do with the castle-building on the sea-shore. The two kinds of scientist are seen in the case of birds. One type sees a bird simply as a collection of feathers and bones. He is more concerned with the tally of feathers in the tail than with the number of man-worrying insects which the owner of the tail may eat in a day. To him the bird is rather a “specimen” than a living bird of interesting habits. The other type studies the 'bird from a commonsense viewpoint, and gains helpful knowledge of the bird’s functions in nature’s scheme of things.