ESSAYS 479 



Elsewhere l I have published some results of these studies, as for example, in the 

 consideration of the mystery of Shakespeare's sonnets. 



In the field of Memory I have instituted a new style of examination, and have 

 established a series of new results. 



Among other fields into which I have introduced new considerations may be 

 mentioned those of Dreams, the Sense of Effort, Fechner's Law, Mathematics, 

 and, finally, the establishment of a basis for a scientific treatment of Ethics. 



I will not continue to speak of these corollaries of the main principles ; I will 

 only say that just as in mathematics the Cartesian system opened the way to the 

 solution of countless problems even in fields never examined by Descartes, so the 

 Fundamental Principles will throw light on problems in every domain of thought, 

 and illuminate the whole field. 



The greatest advantage, however, when the problems of the ordinary text-books 

 cease to be stumbling-blocks, will be found in the habitual use of the system on 

 the part of those who have completely mastered it and make it a part of their way 

 of thinking. It will be found to be like a clarification of the medium of vision, 

 and in dealing with questions that arise in various fields, whereas otherwise we 

 must often be content with " symbolical " demonstrations, we are by this system 

 enabled to trace down every argument to its basis, and so to attain at length, 

 even in matters of puzzling complexity, a sort of "intuitive " view. 



DALTON'S DEBT TO DEMOCRITUS (Joshua C. Gregory, B.Sc, F.I.C.) 



The Great War has brought the angel with the sable wings to so many doors 

 that the emotions aroused by death, always present and always poignant, have 

 gathered into a great wave to sweep through the hearts of men. This wave of 

 emotion has touched the mind through the heart and turned it, now wistfully, now 

 with eager hope, now doubtfully, now with firm conviction, towards the belief that 

 the dead can remain in communion with the living. This belief has been so long 

 a candidate for recognition in the world ; it has been, in turn, so passionately 

 believed and so scornfully rejected, that it is difficult to be sure whether it be 

 merely experiencing one of its frequent recrudescences, or whether it be at last in 

 the act of confirming the claim so frequently allowed to it and then rejected. 



Thought has constantly, during human history, produced conceptions as candi- 

 dates for recognition. Many of them, like the once prevalent belief in metamor- 

 phosis of animals into men or of men into animals, have ceased to be candidates 

 at all. Others, like the Greek theory of cosmic cycles that constantly return the 

 round of change to its starting-point, remain permanent candidates with varying 

 fortunes as they are alternately received into favour and displaced from it. 

 Others again cease to be candidates through final acceptance. The prolonged 

 candidatures of many conceptions, such as the theory of organic evolution now 

 firmly associated with the name of Darwin, give rise, from time to time, to fierce 

 controversies over the names of their inventors. Samuel Butler's savage attack 

 on Darwin's right to be regarded as the founder of the evolution theory confused 

 the simple recognition of the evolution theory as a candidate for recognition with 

 the penetrating vision that perceived the full nature and value of its claims. 

 Butler may have been right in supposing that Buffon, beneath apparent deference 

 to the predominant theological view of his time, ironically suggested the evolution 

 of animal species into and out of one another. Sir Walter Raleigh may have 



1 In The Book Month , July 1919. 



