12 



tliey generally aii'l roundly do, that progress set in only after 

 hinij and is mainly due to his action on his contemporaries and 

 on subsequent generations. 



Passing now to the question of method, we see the worth- 

 lessness of Bacon's. We have to turn to antiquity to find the 

 origin of the scientific process. Aristotle originated that process. 

 Aristotle starting from observation of particular facts arrived at 

 a universal law. That method of Aristotle is the scientific pro- 

 cess. There can be no other. After observation the great 

 Greek philosopher would say : — 



All sheets of salt water are seas. 

 The Caspian is salt ; 



therefore. 

 The Caspian is a sea. 



This is the famous syllogism, which stands as a rule of 

 scientific reasoning. It is sound and scientific because it is 

 founded on strict observation and fact. The Schoolmen never 

 used that matter-of-fact syllogism ; they used the syllogistic 

 method — a very difierenL process. They tried to solve all propo- 

 sitions, all problems, whether physical or moral, by imagination. 

 In dread of incurring the censure of the Church, which feared 

 science because it savoured of free inquiry, and free inquiry 

 sapped authority, the Schoolmen put examination of facts aside, 

 and reasoned from imagination in this manner : — 

 All black-feathei-ed birds are ravens, 

 This bird is black-feathered, 

 therefore. 

 This bird is a raven. 



As the premise of this syllogism is erroneous, the conclusion 

 is false. The Schoolmen, by this process, which was erroneously 

 identified with Aristotle's — because they invoked Aristotle as 

 their authority — discredited both Aristotle and his syllogism 

 among the scientific men of the Revival. But the outcry was an 

 unjust one. It ought to have been addressed to the Schoolmen 

 alone. The condemnation and contempt was deserved by those 

 who had turned an excellent instrument to a wrong use. It was 

 as unreasonable and unfounded as if we despised Stephenson and 

 his engine because boilers now and then explode through mis- 

 management But Aristotle's is, and will always remain, the 

 scientific method, because it is based upon observation, experi- 

 ment, and induction. Nothing is more explicit and clear than 

 Aristotle's injunctions about those three elements of the scientific 

 process. 



