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METHOD METHODISTS. 



of the atmosphere. The position ami exposure of 

 the place should also be made known. These requi- 

 sites are seldom attained, and very few registers of 

 the weather are entitled to much confidence. Ac- 

 curate observations, made in all parts of the world, 

 ami in a regular and scientific manner, are yet 

 necessary for the systematic classification of all 

 meteorological phenomena into a complete science. 



METHOD ; a convenient arrangement of things, 

 proceedings, or ideas ; in logic and rhetoric, the 

 art or rule of disposing ideas in such a manner that 

 they may be easily comprehended, either in order to 

 discover the truth, or to demonstrate it to others. 

 Method is essential to science, and gives to our 

 knowledge its scientific character. Scientific authors 

 make use of different methods, according to the 

 object which they have in view. The apparently 

 strictest is the mathematical, which is capable of 

 giving the greatest possible clearness to its theorems 

 by a series of explanations and deductions ; but it 

 ought to be observed that this method is only 

 adapted to a science which has to do with numbers 

 and magnitudes, and has had unfortunate conse- 

 quences when nothing was considered true but what 

 could be mathematically proved, and when the 

 mathematical method was applied to intellectual 

 philosophy. Methods have made epochs in philo- 

 sophy, proceeding from the spirit of the systems to 

 which they were applied. Thus there are the 

 sceptic method (see Scepticism), the critical method 

 (see Kanf), and the dogmatic method, which, in 

 philosophy, is the method that starts from acknow- 

 ledged general principles, all of which are limited 

 and partial. The truly philosophical method is 

 determined by the nature of the science. As to the 

 way of proceeding, the method may be analytical 

 (i. e. it starts from particular cases, and seeks from 

 them to deduce general causes) or synthetic (i. e. it 

 infers the consequences from the causes); but it 

 must always proceed from elementary principles 

 admitted by all, with logical strictness, in order to 

 remain scientific. The popular method starts from 

 the well known and the individual, and is generally 

 analytical. Orators, both lay and clerical, and 

 teachers of youth, make use of this less scientific 

 method. As to external form, the teacher may 

 speak uninterruptedly (this is adapted for adults 

 and academical lectures), or proceed by way of 

 interrogation. In those branches the elements of 

 which lie in the operations of human reason, as 

 in morals, mathematics, and religion, the catechetical 

 method will be found best, because it addresses the 

 reason or heart of the pupil directly, and by ques- 

 tions calls into action the powers of his under- 

 standing. The catechetic method deserves the 

 name of Socratic only when the teacher limits him- 

 self to directing, by his questions, the course of the 

 pupil's thoughts, but allows the conclusions to be 

 formed by the operation of the scholar's own mind. 

 Every art and science requires its own method of 

 teaching, which, indeed, should be accommodated 

 to the individual characters of the teacher and pupil. 

 In order to teach the first elements to many pupils, 

 Lancaster's method will be always found useful. 

 (See Mutual Instruction.) Pestalozzi strives, in his 

 method, whatever the branch of instruction may be, 

 nlways to keep in view the elevation of the whole 

 being, the strengthening of all the powers, and, as 

 far as possible, to make the pupil's own power 

 co-operate in the work of instruction. (See Pesta- 

 lozzi.) A mistaken benevolence has at times under- 

 taken to make all study amusing, and to beguile the 

 pupil into knowledge without the necessity of labo- 

 rious exertion on his part. Such a method, how- 

 fver, tends to prevent the development of the facul- 



ies, and to unfit the mind to cope with difficulties. 

 I'rivate instruction requires different methods from 

 lic instruction ; in fact, circumstances will con- 

 stantly vary the methods of a skilful teacher. 



METHODISTS; those defenders of the Popish 

 church who, in the seventeenth century, attempted 

 ;o bring to a close the controversy with the Protes- 

 tants, by new methods of reasoning ; in later times, 

 i religious sect which arose in the bosom of the Eng- 

 ish church in the early part of the eighteenth cen- 

 Airy. Some young men at Oxford united themselves 

 together, in 1729, for the purpose of strengthening 

 each other's pious resolutions, and observing the 

 religious services with strictness. They aimed par- 

 ticularly at a more rigid compliance with the precepts 

 of the New Testament than was usual in the church, 

 ind devoted themselves to works of love, such as 

 instructing poor children, visiting the prisons, &c. 

 Their more worldly fellow-students, among other 

 names indicative of their peculiarities, called them 

 Methodists, on account of their methodical observ- 

 ance of the rules of religion and the regularity of 

 their lives. This name was adopted by themselves, 

 and has since been continued to their followers. Of 

 the members of this small society, the principal were 

 John Wesley (q. v.), the founder, his brother Charles, 

 and George Whitfield (q. v.), who joined it in 

 1735. In 1735, Wesley went out to Georgia, to 

 engage in the conversion of the heathens. There he 

 remained two years, and, becoming aquainted with 

 some of the Moravian Brothers, was much struck 

 with their severe simplicity and pious devotion. 

 (See United Brethren.) He then visited Herrnhut, 

 after his return to England, and determined to model 

 his own society somewhat after the same plan. 

 Whitfield's preaching had already prepared the 

 people for this undertaking. Wesley collected a 

 small society in London, which held its conferences 

 in a private house, without any disposition, at this 

 time, to secede from the church. But the clergy of 

 the establishment having refused their pulpits to the 

 Methodist preachers who endeavoured to gain over 

 their hearers to their society, and the concourse of 

 auditors being too great to be accommodated in any 

 church, they began to preach in the open air, and to 

 organize a separate church on the primitive apo- 

 stolical model. The peculiar character of this field- 

 preaching, which was distinguished from the philoso- 

 phical indifference of that of the established clergy by 

 its vehemence, religious enthusiasm, and popular 

 style, and which dwelt more on the fall and depravity 

 of man, on the atonement, on the restoration through 

 the merits of a crucified Saviour, on repentance, and on 

 regeneration, with all the eloquence which a sincere 

 zeal could inspire, had a great effect in increasing the 

 numbers of the society. Whitfield, the boldest and 

 most zealous apostle of Methodism, in eloquence, cou- 

 rage, and fire the Paul of his sect, often collected hear- 

 ers to the number of 12,000 in the fields, churchyards, 

 and even at fairs, and, by the thunders of his elo- 

 quence and the terrors of his denunciations, produced 

 such an effect upon his audience, that many of them 

 were thrown into convulsions, and, amidst cries and 

 groans of anguish, were turned to faith and holiness on 

 the spot. These sudden conversions were considered as 

 the outpourings of grace, and came to be considered 

 by the Methodists as desirable results of their preach- 

 ing. They soon, however, gave up the practice ol 

 field-preaching, and built houses of worship (taber- 

 nacles), partly to protect themselves from exposure 

 to the weather, and partly to avoid the outrages which 

 they experienced from the rabble. Although they 

 suffered much from the violence of the populace, yet, 

 as the government made no opposition, they now pro- 

 ceeded to the regular establishment of their church 



