XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 361 



rate, setting out to discover how much we at 

 present know upon these abstruse matters, the 

 question arises as to what is to be our course of 

 proceeding, and what method we must lay down 

 for our guidance. I reply to that question, that 

 our method must be exactly the same as that which 

 is pursued in any other scientific inquiry, the 

 method of scientific investigation being the same 

 for all orders of facts and phenomena whatsoever. 



I must dwell a little on this point, for I wish you 

 to leave this room with a very clear conviction that 

 scientific investigation is not, as many people seem 

 to suppose, some kind of modern black art. I say 

 that you might easily gather this impression from 

 the manner in which many persons speak of 

 scientific inquiry, or talk about inductive and 

 deductive philosophy, or the principles of the 

 " Baconian philosophy." I do protest that, of the 

 vast number of cants in this world, there are 

 none, to my mind, so contemptible as the pseudo- 

 scientific cant which is talked about the " Baconian 

 philosophy." 



To hear people talk about the great Chancellor 

 and a very great man he certainly was, you 

 would think that it was he who had invented 

 science, and that there was no such thing as 

 sound reasoning before the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth ! Of course you say, that cannot 

 possibly be true ; you perceive, on a moment's 

 reflection, that such an idea is absurdly wrong, 



