OCR Text |
Show 58 METHOD OF DISCOVERY. kind of difference, between the mental operations of a man of science and those of an ordinary person, as there is between the operations and methods of a baker or of a butcher weighing out his goods in common scales, and the ope!ations of a chemist in performing a difficult and complex analysis by means of his balance and finely-graduated weights. It is not that the action of the scales in the one case, and the balance in the other, differ in the principles of their construction or manner of working; but tl:w beam of one is set on an. infinitely finer axis than the other, and of course turns by the addition of a much smaller weight. You will understand this better, perhaps, if I give you some familiar example. You have all heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science work by means. of Induction and Deduction, and that by the help of these operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from Nature certain other things, which are called Natural Laws, and Causes, and that out of these, by some cunning skill of their own, they build up I-!ypotheses and Theories. And it is imagined by many, that the operations of the common mind can be by no means compared with these processes, and that they have to be acquired by a sort of special apprenticeship to the craft. To hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus are being used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives. 5D There is a well-known incident in one of Moliere's plays, where .t he author makes the he ro express unb~unded delight on being told that he had been tallung prose durin(To the whol e o f h"I S l"1f ie . In the 1\lETHOD OF DISCOVEU,Y. same ~ay, I trust, that you will take comfort, and be delighted with yourselves ' on th e d"I scovery that y.o u have been actin ocr on the pn.n ct.p 1 e s o f I. ndue .. pt1 ve and deductive philosoph.v, durinoo- the sa me perw. d . robably there is not one here to-nio-ht who ha t. In th o s no e course ~f the day had occasion to set in motion a complex trmn of reasoning, of the very same k' d thouo-h a·~ . f . lll J . o. ~ enng o course In degree, as that which a scientific man goes through in tracing the causes of natural phenomena. A very trivial circumstance will serve to e l'f th · S . xemp 1 y Is. uppose you go Into a fruiterer's shop, wanting ~n. apple,-you take up one, and, on biting it, you find It Is sour; you look at it, and see that it is hard and green. You take up another one, and that too is hard o-reen and Th ' 5 ' sour. e shopman offers you a third . b t be~o re b1'f t ng I· t, you examine it, and find that ' it ui s, hard and green' a n d you 1. m me a·I ately say that you w'll not have i_t, as it must be sour, like those that you ha:e already tned. N ~thing can be more simple than that, you think. but ~f yo~ will take the trouble to analyze and trac; out ln.to Its logical elements wbat has been done b the m1nd ' y ou WI· 11 b e greatly surprised. In the firsYt .~lace, you have performed the operation of Inductwn. You fou~d that, in two experiences, liardness .and greenness In apples go together with sourness. |