PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

To speak of a prehistoric science may seem like a contradiction of terms. The word prehistoric seems

to imply barbarism, while science, clearly enough, seems the outgrowth of civilization; but rightly

considered, there is no contradiction. For, on the one hand, man had ceased to be a barbarian long

before the beginning of what we call the historical period; and, on the other hand, science, of a kind,

is no less a precursor and a cause of civilization than it is a consequent. To get this clearly in mind, we

must ask ourselves: What, then, is science? The word runs glibly enough upon the tongue of our every-

day speech, but it is not often, perhaps, that they who use it habitually ask themselves just what it

means. Yet the answer is not difficult. A little attention will show that science, as the word is commonly

used, implies these things: first, the gathering of knowledge through observation; second, the

classification of such knowledge, and through this classification, the elaboration of general ideas or principles. In the familiar definition of Herbert Spencer, science is organized knowledge.