A REPLY TO ''FALLACIES OF EVOLUTION:' 103 



estimate of what is meant by the faculty of scientific observation. 

 He makes a broad distinction between the "faculties of observation 

 and of ratiocination or reasoning,'''' and states that "they are, in fact, 

 the distinctive characteristics of two different classes of men, regarded 

 with reference to their intellectual endowments. The man of observa- 

 tion, prone to notice and apt to discern the peculiarities of form and 

 substance — all, in short, that comes within the cognizance of the 

 senses — is by no means equally apt to discern, or competent to appre- 

 ciate, the conclusions to which they are calculated to conduce ; while, 

 on the other hand, the man of reasoning, accustomed to deal with the 

 suggestions of the mind rather than of the senses, prone to speculation 

 rather than to experiment, is comparatively unfitted for the more mat- 

 ter-of-fact employment of investigation and research. Both classes of 

 minds and of men are equally essential to the progress of scientific 

 discovery, though it can not be said that both stand on the same level 

 in the estimation of their respective faculties. The faculty of observa- 

 tion, important as it is, is a faculty common, not merely to all men, 

 but more or less to all animated beings, whereas the faculty of reason- 

 ing, at least in its higher grades, is peculiar to man alone." 



Now, that there is a distinction to be drawn between an observant 

 and a contemplative mind — between a man who sees and a man who 

 thinks — there can be no question. But, that the distinction is of the 

 kind here drawn, no one in the least degree acquainted with experi- 

 mental research could for a moment suppose. The idea of the wi-iter 

 seems to be that all scientific observation consists merely in a refined 

 use of the senses, the things to be observed lying in Nature already 

 formed, like shells upon the beach. Such an idea is applicable only to 

 the pursuits of a species-hunter, or " systematist " — a man who holds 

 merely the rank of a private in the scientific army. For the discovery 

 of all that deserves the name of scientific truth, for the classifying of 

 hidden analogies and the unveiling of general principles, the highest 

 faculties of the human mind, in the highest degree of their develop- 

 ment, must be taxed to the highest degree of their power. "With a 

 clear perception of the problem to be solved, a man of science must 

 either think out the particular conjunction of conditions occurring in 

 Nature, which, if found to occur, would give an unequivocal solution, 

 or he must devise such an artificial conjunction of conditions as may 

 lead to the same result. And whether, as in astronomy and geology, 

 the former method be employed, or the latter method be employed, as 

 in all the experimental sciences it must be, I fearlessly affirm that in 

 no department of intellectual activity is there a greater demand made 

 upon that particular faculty of mind which our author terms the facul- 

 ty of ratiocination. If we follow the intellectual operations by which 

 any of the greater results in science have been achieved, their most 

 conspicuous feature will always be found to consist in the number, the 

 length, and the intricacy of the chains of reasoning converging now 



