APPENDIX A XLI 
leads to a higher standard of living, whereby a part of the wealth pro- 
duced is consumed; but the shortening of the hours of work gives 
greater leisure to the workman, and affords greater opportunities of 
education, of which many avail themselves, and thereby reach a higher 
standard of knowledge and efficiency. With better education and 
the resulting ambition to rise in the world, they apply themselves to 
improvements in their trades or vocations and so become more useful 
members of society. 
Besides the direct results of the application of science in the in- 
crease of wealth and efficiency, other benefits, intellectual and ethical, 
arise from the methods and ideals of science. In this regard I wish to 
say a few words explanatory of scientific procedure. 
As a first step comes observation of phenomena, either natural or 
experimental, the collecting of data. These may be tabulated or 
classified in various ways for convenience of reference. 
Secondly, after noting resemblances or differences between the 
facts classified, the mind seeks for the cause or the conditions underlying 
these resemblances or differences. A cause having been assumed to 
account for the observed effects, the consequences which ought to 
follow from the assumed cause are determined by logical deduction. 
The comparison of the consequences deduced from the hypothesis with 
the effects actually observed, is the test of the hypothesis. In this 
manner the original classification, made more or less in accordance 
with the outward characteristics of the phenomena is supplemented 
or superseded by a classification according to more hidden characters. 
The principle embodied in the hypothesis, being of a certain general- 
ity, covers more phenomena than the particular ones observed. If the 
hypothesis is not inconsistent with any known facts, it is justifiable 
to apply it, with more or less probability, to cases yet unobserved, and 
thereby knowledge is in a sense created by the mere operation of the 
mind. 
Some, like Bacon, have denied the validity of the method of 
hypothesis. The scientific method which he set forth was that of 
classification merely. From the mass of data collected generalizations 
were to be made, but never in such a way as, in doing so, to depart in 
the slightest degree from closest touch with the facts. It must be 
remembered that Bacon wrote at a time when the scholastic philosophy 
was in vogue, of which the tendency, or, I might even say, the leading 
principle, was to make the preconceived notions of the human mind 
the measure of nature. The properties of material bodies were deduced 
from such ideas as the incorruptibility of the celestial bodies, the perfect 
nature of the circle, or of certain numbers, or even from the meanings 
of words. The unprofitableness of such speculations is well illustrated 
