1933 Cedrus Yearbook

CHAPTER THREE Science GLASS-BLOWERS OF MURANO The American painter, Charles Fredrick Ulrich, who delights in painting people working at their profession, has in this picture given us a glimpse of Glass-blowers in the Italian city, Murano, plying their trade which has been an art since many centuries before the dawn of Christianity. VERY branch of knowledge had at some time a beginning. So science at some time in ages past had a beginning—probably a very meager one,and one which was not added to very rapidly or with any great degree of certainty. This branch of knowl- edge has met with many misfortunes and with much bitter opposition but it has pros- pered and grown because of the fact that it has a solid foundation of truth, and because it has rendered a service to the world which fully justifies its existence. Probably, if we should go back to the very beginning of science, we woud find it nearly contemporary with the first appearance of man.Even in his simple primitive life he observed scientific facts, though he could not recognize them as such. He saw the daily rising of the sun in the east and its setting in the west. He saw the flowing and the ebbing of the tide each lunar day, the passing of the seasons and their recurrence each year. Each Spring he saw the melting of the snows with the coming of warm weather.Then came the budding of the trees and the springing forth of the grass, the sprouting of seeds and the growth of many flowers and plants; in the animal kingdom there was increased life and activity. Man learned to look forward to the coming of Spring each year, and he had faith, because of past experiences, to believe that it would come. By this time he had discovered that the laws of nature are uniform and that their existence was permanent. It was expected that winter would again follow the warm days ' Page Twenty-five