ASPECTS OF MODERN BIOLOGY 541 



specialists were so segregated that they were scarcely or not aware of 

 the fact. The grouping was sometimes according to classes, orders 

 and families; sometimes according to physiological or morphological 

 aspects of things; but everywhere it seemed that narrowness increased, 

 and that broad conceptions of the Darwinian type were fading away. 



The new attitude typified by Professor Bateson not only unifies the 

 branches of zoology, but makes zoology and botany one. Greedy for 

 the results of special research in every department, it yet makes all 

 serve a common end. So far from despising or discouraging the most 

 minute enquiries in limited fields, it gives them all a new purpose and 

 new meaning, as contributory to the philosophy of life, which is, indeed, 

 the sum of all philosophy. We find ourselves at that meeting point 

 of monism and dualism, of synthesis and analysis, where the electric 

 spark of human understanding always has had and always will have 

 its birth. 



Professor Forei, of Switzerland, in a recently issued book, has called 

 attention to the difference between mathematical and ordinary reason- 

 ing, including in the latter the methods necessarily employed in the 

 biological sciences. In mathematics, we start with certain postulated 

 facts, and given definite methods of procedure, climb up a ladder of 

 argument, each part of which is supported by the one below. An error 

 at any point vitiates the whole piece of work ; while, if there is no error, 

 the result is said to be demonstrated beyond dispute. Systems of logic 

 have been constructed in the same manner, and such processes have 

 found great favor with lawyers and theologians whose main purpose 

 has been to support theories rather than ascertain the truth. 



In the natural sciences, as in the every-day affairs of life, the method 

 is entirely different. Desiring to determine the state of things at any 

 point in time or space, we converge upon it all the pertinent evidence 

 we can secure, and form a judgment upon the collection. We do not 

 profess to exclude the possibility of error; rarely do we feel so well 

 supplied with facts that others are not welcome. Those of us who have 

 worked long among biological facts have so often made mistakes, or 

 discovered the mistakes of others, that we have become somewhat more 

 humble-minded and less assertive than we used to be. This humility, 

 however, is coupled with a keen sense of the tremendous weight of 

 evidence in favor of certain conclusions. We do not assert that we 

 must be right, but we at least demand an equivalent load on the other 

 side of the scales before changing our opinion : a demand not readily 

 comprehended by those to whom our body of facts is invisible. 



In Colorado to-day we find existing many millions of individuals of 

 animals and plants, presenting extreme diversities of form, color and 

 size, and distributed in certain particular ways. It is the business of 

 the naturalist to find out the how and why of all this, so far as he can. 



