a quote I came across today pertinent to our discussion, Gilbert Newton Lewis and Merle Randall , 1923 text (vii):
'There are ancient cathedrals which , apart from their consecrated purpose, inspire solemnity and awe. Even the curious visitor speaks of serious things, with hushed voice, and as each whisper reverberates through the vaulted nave, the returning echo seems to bear a message of mystery. The labor of generations of architects and artisan has been forgotten, the scaffolding erected for their toils has long since been removed, their mistakes have been erased, or have become hidden by the dust of centruies. Seeing only the perfection of the completed whole, we are impressed as by some superhuman agency. But sometimes we enter such an edifice that is still partly under construction; then the sound of hammers, the reek of tobacco, the trivial jest bandeied from workman to workman, enable us to realize that these great structures are but the result of giviing ordinary human effort a direction and a purpose.
Science has its cathedrals, built by the effort of scientific thought of a few architects and of many workers. In these loftier monuments of scientific thought a tradition has arisen whereby the friendly usages of colloquial speech give way to a certain severity and formality. While this may sometimes promote precise thinking, it more often result in the intimidation of the neophtye. There fore we have attempted, while conducting the reader through the classic edifice of thermodynamics, into workshops where construction is now in progress, to temper the customary severity of the science in so far that it is compatible with clarity of thought. '
