‘You think you know all the facts, Sir,’ they said,
‘But some you cannot suppose...’
‘Not so; and science is not just facts,’ he said,
‘But the meaning ascribed by those
Who try data to knit into a fit story
Of how Nature probably works, a posteriori.’ ¹
But they needed no story, by thought supplied, to tell them
What was right and meet,
That when stories change or differ lies indwell them,
While truth is unchanging, complete -
Though partly known, even as tartly shown, in their defiance:
‘Why can’t you behave?’ seemed the ultimate test of science.